Dental Earnings and Expenses, England and Wales - 2007-08

The 2007/08 Dental Earnings and Expenses Report, England and Wales, provides a detailed study of the earnings and expenses of self-employed primary care dentists who carried out some NHS work in England and Wales during 2007/08 - the second year of the new contractual arrangements. The results relate to dentists with varying levels of self-employment earnings from both NHS and private dental work.

The results are presented for Providing-Performer dentists (those who held a contract with a local health body and also performed dental services) and for Performer Only dentists (those who performed dental services but did not hold a contract with a local health body).

This report was produced by The NHS Information Centre for health and social care, in consultation with a working group comprised of representatives from the Department of Health, the Welsh Assembly Government, the Northern Ireland Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, the British Dental Association, the secretariat for the Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration Review Body, the NHS Business Services Authority Dental Services, and the National Association of Specialist Dental Accountants. Earnings and expenses analyses are performed by HM Revenue and Customs statisticians, and only aggregate non-disclosive summary data are sent to The NHS IC for inclusion in the report.

Earnings for 2007/08 cannot be compared with those of 2006/07 because the scheduling of payments made to some dentists following the introduction of the new contractual arrangements on 1 April 2006 had a one-off effect in that financial year. Comparisons of expenses in 2006/07 and 2007/08 have been made, although a number of factors, highlighted in the Introduction of the report, mean that such comparisons should be made with caution.

The NHS IC has also published a separate 2007/08 Dental Earnings and Expenses Report, Northern Ireland, Experimental Statistics; differences in contractual arrangements between Northern Ireland and England and Wales mean that comparisons between the two reports cannot be made.