I've had a number of discussions with the health Minister with regard to the contract reform and with regard to the issues facing dentistry across Wales, because I know this is an issue that comes up frequently in the Assembly. We've acknowledged that the current contractual system does need reform, and that's something that we are absolutely getting on with, and significant changes are already being made and those changes are being welcomed by dental teams.

We've said we want to see the number of practices participating in the reform programme expanding further, and we do expect now to see over half of practices being part of the programme by October 2020. Currently, there are 132, so that's around 30 per cent of dental practices currently taking part.

Obviously, there are workforce and retention issues that we're seeking to address as well. Part of that is through the training programmes that we're putting in place. There are year-on-year increases now in the number of dentists providing NHS care in Wales, but we recognise recruitment and retention is a particular issue, and particularly so in some parts of Wales—north Wales, mid Wales and west Wales, particularly—and it is causing some difficulty in terms of filling vacancies.

But, I can confirm that Health Education and Improvement Wales are now looking at the commissioning of training numbers, training and education packages to develop the workforce, and considering whether there are more effective workforce models to deliver services that could improve dentists' workloads and help make practices more sustainable and the career more attractive.