Like many of you, I am worried about access to NHS dentistry with some local practices’ announcing that they will not be taking on new NHS patients. Last year, several dentists disclosed to me that there is not a single dentist taking on NHS patients in all of Lancashire. This is something which has sadly been confirmed by a BBC investigation last summer. To be blunt, dentistry in England has been a mess for quite some time and the Government has simply sat on their hands.

I have made several attempts to get answers, I questioned the then Chancellor Rishi Sunak in the House of Commons – noting that several years ago he complained about the lack of dentists in his own constituency, but now he holds the purse strings and can do something about it – but rather than make a commitment to new investment in NHS dentists, he instead sent a junior minister to give me a meaningless answer. Unsatisfied, I raised this again with the then Prime Minister, Boris Johnson at Prime Minister’s Questions in the hope that the PM would not be able to duck the question. In answering, he simply repeated the lie that the NHS, including NHS dentistry, has “received record funding” – in fact, not a penny of the NHS catch up funding was allocated to dentistry. Again, in January this year having secured another PMQ I raised this issue with Rishi Sunak now as Prime Minister. He said that there’s more NHS dentists (not that anyone would know), and then bizarrely waffled on about his own use of private and NHS GPs to try and score some random political points that week. All I can suggest right now, is to keep searching and joining dentist waiting lists, and if you are in severe pain or need to access dental care in any other kind of emergency, you should be able to access this through A&E or by calling 111.

I am really excited to report that I have joined the Environmental Audit Committee and I attended my first meeting last week. The role of the Environmental Audit Committee is to review government policies on environmental protection and sustainable development; and to audit their performance against sustainable development and environmental protection targets.

We are facing a climate emergency globally; I am truly grateful to have the opportunity to gain greater insight into critical environmental policies and lend my experiences on the committee to make positive environmental changes locally.

As ever, if there is anything you want to get in touch with me about, please feel free to email cat.smith.mp@parliament.uk or call me on 01524 566551. I like to hear about the things that matter to you.