National Health Service (General Dental Services) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2025: final business and regulatory impact assessment
The business and regulatory impact assessment (BRIA) considers the potential impact of the amendment to the General Dental Services regulations on businesses.
Section 5: Next steps and implementation
Recommendations/ preferred options
Ministers have decided to bring forward an SSI which will amend The National Health Service (General Dental Services) (Scotland) Regulations 2010 to enable changes to the requirements for prior approval and to amend mandatory training to allow dentists to list provisionally for a set period of time.
Implementation considerations/ plan
The changes to prior approval will not be implemented until 1 November 2026, allowing for engagement with the relevant stakeholders and for guidance to be issued to the profession in advance of the changes being implemented.
The changes to mandatory training will be implemented from 31 January 2026 and guidance will be issued to the dental sector and other relevant organisations in advance of this date.
Post implementation review
The outcome of the changes to both prior approval and mandatory training will be measured through official data on the dental workforce and activity levels. Management information from NSS will also be monitored to ensure that the changes to prior approval are having the desired effect of reducing delays to treatment.
Contact
Email: NHSdentistry@gov.scot