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Everyone on the committee would want people to be able to access all of the NHS in a timely manner when they need it. We are focusing today on dentistry and I keep coming back to this question because, every time you speak about this in the chamber, you quote statistics about the number of people who are registered but do not qualify it by saying whether they can actually access their NHS dentist in a timely manner. I put it to you for a third time: do you accept that being registered does not necessarily mean that someone can see their dentist in a timely manner?

Overseas-qualified dentists who are coming to Scotland do extra work. Is that unique to Scotland or does it happen across the UK?

No.

You are not answering my question, minister, but that is okay. We will move on.

The committee has heard about the difficulties that people have in accessing NHS GPs and the statistic that you just gave me says that 40 per cent of the population have not seen their GP in the past two years.

I have spoken to dentists who find it extremely difficult to deregister patients. They feel that if someone has not come to see them for a number of years, despite letters asking them to come in for an annual review, they should be allowed to deregister them. Do you agree with those dentists?

Minister, I want to ask a direct question on something that I have been told—and if it is wrong, I am quite happy to be corrected. Is it true that a fully qualified dentist who wants to come to Scotland from another UK country needs to do a year’s work under supervision?

I remind members of my declaration of interests as a practising general practitioner in the NHS.

I will put this to you directly, minister. Do you accept that the fact that someone is registered with an NHS dentist does not mean that they can get timely access to that dentist?

Given that answer, do you feel that being registered means that people can get seen in a timely manner?

I declare an interest as a practising national health service general practitioner.

Good morning, minister. Are you responsible for and in charge of the NCS, or is there somebody else in Government to whom we should be speaking?

So are you in charge of the NCS?