Llywydd, part of the premise of that question is nonsensical, and the Member knew it when he said it, as well. The contract reform, as we have explained many, many times on the floor of the Senedd, was an optional matter. It was for practices to decide whether or not to opt into it. The vast majority of practices have done so; a small minority have decided to make other arrangements. That was always available to them, as I have had to explain several times now to Conservative Members of the Senedd. 

The truth of the matter is, Llywydd, that, up until the time of the pandemic, the number of dentists carrying out NHS activity in Wales rose every year—rose every year—from 2014-15 to 2018-19, and our ambition is to make sure that there is NHS dentistry available to everybody who wishes to take it up. However, as the Member will know, dentists are contracting professionals. They choose whether or not to take up work on behalf of the NHS. When they choose not to, in that small minority of cases who have made that decision, the money is not lost to NHS dentistry; the money remains in the system. The money remains so that other practices, or new entrants into dentistry, are able to carry out work on behalf of the NHS.

Our estimates for contract reform in the area covered by the Member are that it will create 16,000 extra NHS places, as a minimum, in the Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board area, and 17,000 extra, as a minimum, NHS patient places in Swansea bay. That's why dental reform and contract reform has been such a priority for this Government.