Dental Workforce Data for England

Record-level, identifiable data for primary care NHS dentists in England is provided to NHS England by the NHS BSA. The data is required to enable NHS England to:

1. Produce statistics relating to counts of dentists in England by contract type and characteristic such as age. The statistics are included in the NHS Dental Statistics (Official Statistics) publication
2. Estimate average earnings and expenses data (with additional analysis and data linkage undertaken by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)) for dentists in England. The data is published annually in the Dental Earnings and Expenses Estimates Official Statistics
3. Produce the Dental Working Patterns, Motivation and Morale Official Statistics based on data linkage, aggregation and a survey of NHS dentists in England and the rest of the UK. Survey findings are also used in the Dental Earnings and Expenses Estimates publication. 

This notice is served on:

• NHS Business Services Authority 

The data is collected in June of each year covering data from April of the previous year to March of the current year, for example, data was collected in June 2023 data covering April 2022 to March 2023. This is an ongoing collection.

Due to the timing of the self-assessment tax returns process, the processing of data used to support the publication of Dental Earnings and Expenses Estimates Official Statistics cannot begin until the end of the following tax year and the Official Statistics are not published until approximately 16 months after the end of the applicable financial year. For example, the Dental Earnings and Expenses Estimates for 2021- 2022 were not published until July 2023 - the earliest point at which the figures could be produced.

The NHS Dental Statistics Official Statistics are processed as soon as the data is received and are usually published in August of that year. For example, the NHS Dental Statistics for 2022-23 were published in August 2023.

For the Dental Working Patterns, Motivation and Morale survey, the data is used to create a list of primary care NHS / Health Service dentists in England. These dentists are then invited to complete an online survey and the data from the survey is validated and processed after the closure of the collection. For example, in 2023, the survey ran from 19 July to 25 August covering working patterns, motivation and morale levels for 2022-23 and is due to be published in April 2024.

Future years’ submission dates will be notified to NHS BSA as the data provider but are expected to run to a similar time frame each year.

Publication timetables for the Dental Earnings and Expenses Estimates Official Statistics are yet to be confirmed but the data is likely to be published in July or August of each year.