Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Request

‘Under the Freedom of Information Act (2000), I am requesting the following information

1. The total spending by the NHS on orthodontic treatment from 2015 to 2025 in England, year by year.

2. The number of dentists and orthodontists in England who have been paid for orthodontic work by the NHS from 2015 to 2025, year by year.

3. The amounts paid to the top twenty orthodontic providers in England by the NHS for orthodontic work from 2015 to 2025, year by year.

4. The average amount paid to an orthodontic provider in England, by the NHS, for provision of orthodontic work, from 2015 to 2025, year by year.

5. The number of patients under 18 years of age who have received orthodontic treatment on the NHS in England, from 2015 to 2025, year by year.

6. The number of patients over 18 years of age who have received orthodontic treatment on the NHS in England, from 2015 to 2025, year by year.

7. The average cost to the NHS for a course of orthodontic treatment for a patient under 18 years of age, in England, from 2015 to 2025, year by year.

8. The average cost to the NHS for a course of orthodontic treatment for a patient over 18 years of age, in England, from 2015 to 2025, year by year.

9. The top twenty amounts paid for orthodontic treatment for a single patient in England, from 2015 to 2025, year by year. (whether a single course of treatment, or multiple courses of treatment)

10. The percentage of the NHS dental budget spent on orthodontics, in England, from 2015 to 2025, year by year.

To avoid any doubt, the information being requested relates to all payments made under NHS dental and / NHS orthodontic contracts / any NHS dental contract, to dentists, orthodontists, and orthodontic therapists in England. This is to include those who are directly employed by the NHS (eg salaries services), those who are indirectly employed by the NHS, and those who are self-employed, and those who are employed or contracted to corporate dental bodies, or group practices.’

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 28 March 2025.

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

Our response

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds some the information you have requested and a copy of the information and is attached.

Please note that we only hold Reporting Years 2017/2018 onwards, this is in line with our Data Retention Schedule.

Please read the below notes to ensure correct understanding of the data.

This report contains the details from FP17s processed for the period stated 2017/2018 -2024/2025 in England contracts. The information within the report includes the data items and descriptions listed below. Only includes contracts with a Performance Target/Financial Value of 1 or more.

Commissioner Code: This is the 3-character code associated with the Commissioning Organisation. This a generic term used to denote health bodies, either Area Teams in England or Health Boards in Wales. Also known as Primary Care Organisations (PCOs)

Commissioner Name: This is the name associated with the Commissioning Organisation. This is a generic term used to denote health bodies, either Area Teams in England or Health Boards in Wales. Also known as Primary Care Organisations (PCOs))

Contract Number: This is a unique 10-character number which identifies a contract.

Provider Name: The name of the provider.

Financial Year: The financial year associated with the 'Year Month' dimension in the format 'YYYY/YYYY' e.g. 2018/2019 for 201804.

UOA Financial Value: The financial value associated with the UOA performance target for the financial year, as entered on CoMPASS by the PCO.

UOA Delivered: The units of orthodontic activity scheduled for the time period selected, relating to the financial year, excluding FD UOA for English contracts.

Number of Performers: The number of Dentists delivering Orthodontic FP17Os.

Service Line Name: The service name/description as maintained by CoMPASS.

Service Line Name: The service name/description as maintained by CoMPASS.

Unique Patient Count: This is a count of the unique patient identities on forms scheduled. A patient may have attended more than once in the time period and received different treatment, so the total figure has been adjusted for duplicate patient IDs. Patient identities are counted for all valid FP17 transactions – including amendment, deletion and withdrawn records. Therefore, it is possible for the count of patient identities to be greater than the count of FP17s.

Adult/Child Description: Adult/Child Patients are defined based on the patients’ age at the date of acceptance. An adult is defined as a patient aged 18 or over at the date of acceptance, a child aged under 18.

UOA per Patient: This shows the number of unit of orthodontic dental activity of per patent. This is calculated by dividing the UOA delivered by the Unique Patient Count (Orthodontic Starts only).

Cost per UOA: This shows the cost per unit of orthodontic activity at the contract. This is calculated by dividing the UOA Financial Value by the UOA Performance Target.

Total Spend: All service name/description as maintained by CoMPASS combined.

% NHS Spend on Orthodontics: The service name/description Orthodontic as a percentage of total spend on NHS Service Lines.

Top 20 Patients: These are the top 20 patients with the highest UOA in the year specified. Note that there may be more than one with the same amount of UOA.

Data Queries

Please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference if you have any specific questions regarding this response; or, if you feel you may be misunderstanding or misinterpreting the information; or, if you plan on publishing the data.

Reusing the data and copyright

If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data please contact communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and is subject to NHSBSA copyright. This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence detailed at:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Should you wish to re-use the information you must include the following statement: “NHSBSA Copyright 2025”. Failure to do so is a breach of the terms of the licence.

Information you receive which is not subject to NHSBSA Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. Please obtain their permission before reproducing any third party (non NHSBSA Copyright) information.