We all know that Opposition parties do not like talking about Brexit, but given that approximately 60 per cent of the dental workforce is European, to simply ignore it or pretend that it has played no part in the situation in which we find ourselves is beyond disingenuous. It simply cannot be ignored. It is utterly undeniable that Brexit, which all the main parties at Westminster are now signed up to, has had a huge impact on recruitment. Eight long years after the referendum, Brexit has had a devastating impact on the UK labour market, and it has hit the recruitment of professionals in the health and social care sector especially hard. The number of EU and European Free Trade Association dentists who have joined the register has halved since the referendum. That is backed up by a Nuffield Trust report on health and Brexit, which states:

“Before the EU referendum, consistently well over 500 dentists trained in the EU and EFTA registered in the UK each year. They made up around a quarter of the additions to the workforce. This dropped sharply around the time of the referendum to around half its previous level, and has never recovered.”

Brexit has brought nothing but harm to people, communities and businesses all across Scotland. This debate gives yet another example of its devastating impact. Scotland needs a migration system that is humane and meets our social and economic needs. We will certainly not get that while we take part in the broken Westminster system.

However, in the face of that challenge, the Scottish Government remains firmly committed to sustaining and improving patient access to NHS dental services. Despite the challenges presented to the profession by the global pandemic and a disastrous Brexit, the Government has maintained a strong track record in growing the NHS dental workforce in Scotland, with 57 dentists per 100,000 population. It continues to work closely with the British Dental Association and others on the recruitment and retention of dentists, particularly in areas where the problem is known to be most acute.

It is worth noting that Scotland continues to outperform England when it comes to the number of dentists per head of population. Compared with England’s 4.3 dentists per 10,000 population and Northern Ireland’s 6, Scotland had 5.9 and Wales had 4.6 in 2021-22. In England, the number carrying out NHS work per head of population has not risen in a decade.