Water Fluoridation
Research shows that water fluoridation is an effective public health intervention to improve oral health for both children and adults and reduces oral health inequalities. Around 10% of the population of England currently receive fluoridated water. If all 5-year-olds with drinking water with less than 0.2 milligrams per litre of fluoride instead received at least 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per litre then the number experiencing caries would reduce by up to 28% and the number of hospital admissions for tooth extractions in children and young people would reduce by up to 68%.
	Since 2013 local authorities have had the power, through the Water Industry Act 1991, to propose, and consult on, new fluoridation schemes and variations or terminations to existing schemes. Local authorities, and the NHS who had responsibility for water fluoridation schemes before them, have faced difficulties with implementing water fluoridation schemes, including most recently the fact that local authority boundaries are not coterminous with water flows, which requires the involvement of several authorities in these schemes, in a way which is complex and burdensome.
	In light of these challenges, the purpose of the sections within the Act that relate to water fluoridation is to give the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care the power to directly introduce, vary or terminate water fluoridation schemes. This removes the burden from local authorities and will allow DHSC to streamline processes and take responsibility for proposing any new fluoridation schemes, which will be subject to consultation and funding being agreed.