Updated May 2026
NHS Dental Charges Amendment Regulations 2026
The 2026 amending statutory instrument took effect on 1 April 2026 and set the current schedule: Band 1 £27.90, Band 2 £76.60, Band 3 £332.10. This page walks through the laying timeline, the explanatory memorandum, the impact assessment, and how the rise sits inside the wider 2026/27 NHS uprating cycle.
BAND 1 (from 1 April 2026)
£27.90
Up from £27.40 (+1.8%)
BAND 2 (from 1 April 2026)
£76.60
Up from £75.30 (+1.7%)
BAND 3 (from 1 April 2026)
£332.10
Up from £326.70 (+1.7%)
What the amending SI does technically
The amending SI is a short instrument, typically only two or three pages, consisting of the citation, commencement, and the substitution of new figures into the Schedule of the principal 2005 Regulations. Regulation 1 of the amending SI gives the citation. Regulation 2 sets commencement at 1 April 2026. Regulation 3 substitutes the new figures for the previous Band 1, 2 and 3 amounts in the Schedule of SI 2005/3477.
No other regulation is touched. The exempt categories in regulations 6 and 7 are unchanged. The course-of-treatment definition in regulation 3 is unchanged. The refund mechanism in regulation 11 is unchanged. The PCN cross-reference in regulation 12 is unchanged. Only the Schedule figures move.
The amending SI is made under the same statutory power as the principal Regulations (section 175 of the NHS Act 2006). It uses the negative resolution procedure: laid before Parliament, then comes into force on the named date unless either House passes a motion to annul within 40 sitting days.
The Explanatory Memorandum
DHSC publishes an Explanatory Memorandum alongside every amending SI. The 2026 EM (available on the legislation.gov.uk page for the SI) runs to approximately 8 pages and covers:
- Policy background: the role of patient charges in funding NHS dental services, the annual uprating cycle, the recent freeze and catch-up rise.
- Detail of the change: the new figures and percentage uplifts.
- Impact on patients: the cost impact across treatment types, exemption coverage figures (DHSC estimates approximately 36% of NHS dental courses are delivered free to exempt patients), and the assessment that the uplift sits below CPI.
- Impact on dental practices: no direct administrative burden (Compass system handles new figures automatically), no change to GDS contract payments, no change to UDA arrangements.
- Equality impact assessment: notes that the rise affects lower-income working households relatively more, but argues that the Low Income Scheme exemption and the Band 3 cap mitigate the impact.
- Consultation: states that no consultation was conducted, as is normal for annual uprating SIs.
- Monitoring and review: commits to keeping the charge structure under review as part of wider NHS dental contract reform.
The EM is the most useful single document for understanding the government's stated rationale. It is downloadable from the SI's page on legislation.gov.uk.
The BDA and Healthwatch response
The British Dental Association response to the 2026 uplift continued its long-running line of argument: patient charges are rising while NHS dental access remains constrained, with the result that patients are being asked to pay more for a service that is increasingly hard to access. The BDA position is that the charge debate should be subordinated to a broader reform of the General Dental Services contract (the UDA model) which they argue is the upstream cause of the access crisis.
Healthwatch England published a brief on the rise noting that the cumulative seven-year nominal uplift (from £23.40 in 2020 to £27.90 in 2026, a 19.2% rise on Band 1) sits slightly below CPI cumulative inflation of approximately 22-24% over the same period. This means dental charges have not in real terms grown faster than the general price level, despite the headline pain of consecutive April rises.
Both organisations argue that the policy frame needs to shift from year-on-year uprating to a structural debate about whether the existing three-band charge model remains fit for purpose in a context of declining NHS dental access. The Government has not signalled any intention to alter the model, only to keep the figures broadly tracking inflation.
How 2026 compares to recent years
| Year | Band 1 rise | Band 2 rise | Band 3 rise | CPI context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2026 | +1.8% | +1.7% | +1.7% | CPI 2.6%; rise below inflation |
| April 2025 | +2.2% | +2.2% | +2.1% | CPI 2.5%; rise broadly tracking inflation |
| April 2024 | +3.1% | +2.9% | +2.8% | CPI 3.2%; rise below inflation |
| April 2023 | +9.2% | +11.5% | +11.6% | CPI 8.7%; catch-up rise after freeze |
| April 2022 | Frozen | Frozen | Frozen | CPI 9.1% (peak Oct 2022) |
| April 2021 | +1.7% | +1.7% | +1.8% | CPI 1.5%; rise above inflation |
CPI figures from ONS. Year-by-year detail at our charge history page and real-terms analysis at real-terms charge history.
What 2027 may look like
The DHSC has not signalled any intention to change the structural model or the percentage methodology for 2027. A continuation of the recent CPI-tracking pattern would suggest:
- Band 1 likely to move to approximately £28.40 to £28.80 (2 to 3% rise)
- Band 2 likely to move to approximately £78.00 to £79.00
- Band 3 likely to move to approximately £338.00 to £342.00
These figures are illustrative only and depend on the OBR inflation forecast for early 2027, the wider DHSC settlement, and any policy intervention. The structural model is unlikely to change without a much larger contract-reform initiative.
A wholesale reform of the GDS contract would in principle allow the patient charge structure to be redesigned (for example, away from three bands and toward a percentage-of-cost share like the Welsh and NI models, or toward a universal-coverage model with no patient charge as in Scotland for under-26s). None of this is currently on the public DHSC roadmap.