I spent much of New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day sorting through crates of papers in my new London office that had accumulated over a decade or so. One of the paradoxes of being promoted – appointed or reappointed to the front bench – is that you immediately lose the relatively spacious office enjoyed as a senior backbencher.

Your stuff is boxed up into crates and removed to a Stygian cupboard-like room on the lower ministerial corridor. Trouble is this one is so small that there isn’t enough room for me and the papers and paraphernalia that had built up. A radical sort out was imperative. Bit of a sad way to start the New Year, but there it is.
Access to NHS dentistry in our area isn’t great. On Friday I visited a local dental practice to discuss the state of dentistry in the UK.
In the old days dentists were paid for items of service – number of fillings etc – which government didn’t much like as it incentivised interventions such as drilling and filling and the costs were uncapped – no pun intended. Indeed, my mouth is full of mercury because of an excess of dental enthusiasm half a century ago.

The Blair government came up with a method of paying NHS dentists called Units of Dental Activity. But UDAs always have been clumsy and clunky.
Once a dentist’s UDAs were used up that was it for the year. It also meant that a new patient coming in with a mouthful of work needing to be done was going to cost the practice a fortune as they were paid the same for six fillings as one.
This disincentivised dentists from taking on the most needy or indeed from taking on new patients at all, given the risk. You can’t blame dentists for refusing NHS work or for giving up early.
We need to go back to basics and either radically overhaul UDAs to make them fit for purpose or scrap them altogether so that those in greatest dental need get seen far more easily.
We also need to enable other dental professionals – hygienists, nurses, therapists – to be employed for routine dentist work just as the role of pharmacists is expanding and options around physician’s assistants are being explored in the UK.
So pleased Ukraine will be getting a dozen UK Challenger II tanks along with AS90 artillery. I hope other European countries and the US will follow our lead. The courage of Ukrainians and their resourcefulness are extraordinary but they need to have quality heavy weapons and armaments to make further progress against the invasion, put Putin back in his box and restore peace to our continent.
Slava Ukraini.