Scotland - Water Fluoridation
Water Fluoridation
Mr Frank McAveety (Glasgow Shettleston) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to consider water fluoridation
Shona Robison: There are currently no plans to fluoridate the public water supply. The Water (Fluoridation) Act 1985 places the onus on NHS boards, based on local consultations and full support of the general public, to apply to Scottish Water if they wish to introduce a fluoridation scheme. The majority of people that responded to a 2002 consultation document were against the idea.
The Scottish Government is committed to improving oral health, particularly in children, and widening access to NHS dentistry. On 20 March 2007, the Scottish Government launched the roll out of the school based dental service Childsmile School targeting the most deprived areas of Scotland. Recent statistics have also shown a rise in the number of NHS dentists and an increase in the number of patients, including children, registered with an NHS dentist. For example, we have met the 2008-09 dental HEAT target that 80% of all three to five-year-old children to be registered with an NHS dentist by 2010-11. In the period ending March 2008 the registration percentage of three to five-year-olds was 77.3%. This rose to 84.4% in the quarter ending March 2009.And one of the Scottish targets set for the year 2010 was that 60% of P7 children should be free of obvious dental decay experience. The recently published National Dental Inspection Programme report (2009) shows that the 63.6% P7 children in NHS boards across Scotland showed no signs of obvious decay experience in their permanent teeth.
Mr Frank McAveety (Glasgow Shettleston) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to consider water fluoridation
Shona Robison: There are currently no plans to fluoridate the public water supply. The Water (Fluoridation) Act 1985 places the onus on NHS boards, based on local consultations and full support of the general public, to apply to Scottish Water if they wish to introduce a fluoridation scheme. The majority of people that responded to a 2002 consultation document were against the idea.
The Scottish Government is committed to improving oral health, particularly in children, and widening access to NHS dentistry. On 20 March 2007, the Scottish Government launched the roll out of the school based dental service Childsmile School targeting the most deprived areas of Scotland. Recent statistics have also shown a rise in the number of NHS dentists and an increase in the number of patients, including children, registered with an NHS dentist. For example, we have met the 2008-09 dental HEAT target that 80% of all three to five-year-old children to be registered with an NHS dentist by 2010-11. In the period ending March 2008 the registration percentage of three to five-year-olds was 77.3%. This rose to 84.4% in the quarter ending March 2009.And one of the Scottish targets set for the year 2010 was that 60% of P7 children should be free of obvious dental decay experience. The recently published National Dental Inspection Programme report (2009) shows that the 63.6% P7 children in NHS boards across Scotland showed no signs of obvious decay experience in their permanent teeth.
posted by Bill at
12:39 PM
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