parliamentarian naivety

Paul Beresford Chair, Administration Committee

As my right hon. Friend is aware, I am a very part-time dentist and I am also a supporter of the British Fluoridation Society. Probably the very biggest reason for children attending hospital for general anaesthetic is to extract decayed, rotten, abscessing teeth caused by dental caries. Fluoridation of the water supplies is a very effective means of prevention. Does he support fluoridationof the water supplies, and what can he do to actively promote it, because, at the moment, it is in only 10% of our supplies?

Matthew Hancock Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

My hon. Friend is of course a dentist, and I would love to listen to him speak in more detail about what we can do to get this right

Love to listen to him speak? Why can't he learn from a  previous occasion when fluoridation was debated in Parliament in 2003 https://goo.gl/42nMFS  Where MPs, were assured that no community would be forced to comply and then when the Bill went through the SHA were given the power to over ride all objections. It only failed because of the resistance in Southampton by the two councils and the determination of those who opposed it.