To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the Overseas Registration Exam for prospective overseas dentists will restart; and what assessment his Department has made of the (a) demand from candidates to sit the exam, and (b) need to fund a catch up programme of for the exam to address the backlog that has been created during the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered on
8 December 2021
As a result of the safety restrictions brought in as part of the COVID-19 response, the General Dental Council suspended Parts 1 and 2 of the Overseas Registration Exam (ORE) last year. The General Dental Council announced on 2 December that the Part 2 exam has a planned sitting in January 2022. The Council is reviewing options to prepare a 2022 schedule of both Part 1 and Part 2 of the exam.
The Department has engaged with the General Dental Council regarding the suspension of the ORE and proposed changes to the Dentists Act 1984 to provide greater flexibility to amend processes for assessing applications for registration from all internationally qualified dentists. The Council has advised that there are currently 2,067 candidates that have applied or are registered to complete the ORE process. The Department has no current plans to fund a catch-up programme.