To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS dentists operating in Shropshire there have been per 1,000 residents in each year since 1997.

The information is not available in the format requested for all years.

The number of people per national health service dentist in Shropshire county primary care trust (PCT) and Telford and Wrekin PCT, as at 31 March 2001 to 2006, is available in annex F of the "NHS Dental Activity and Workforce Report England: 31 March 2006" report. This information is not available for 1997 to 2000 as PCTs were not in existence in these years, so population data at PCT level are not available. However, the number of NHS dentists for these years have been estimated to match the 2001 PCT boundaries. These data are included in annex E of the report.

This information is based on the old contractual arrangements, which were in place up to and including 31 March 2006. This report, published on 23 August 2006, has already been placed in the Library and is available on the Information Centre for health and social care website at:

www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/dwfactivity

The number of dentists with NHS activity per 100,000 population during the years ending 31 March 2007, 2008 and 2009 are available in table G1 of annex 3 of the "NHS Dental Statistics for England: 2008/09" report. This information is based on the new dental contractual arrangements, introduced on 1 April 2006. This report, published on 19 August 2009, has already been placed in the Library and is also available on the Information Centre for health and social care website at:

www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/dentalstats0809

Following a recent consultation exercise, this measure is based on a revised methodology and therefore supersedes any previously published work force figures relating to the new dental contractual arrangements. It is not comparable to the information collected under the old contractual arrangements. This revised methodology counted the number of dental performers with NHS activity recorded via FP17 claim forms in each year ending 31 March.

These published figures relate to a headcount and do not differentiate between full-time and part-time dentists, nor do they account for the fact that some dentists may do more NHS work than others.