Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference his letter dated 20 April 2022 to the Rt hon. Member for South West Surrey, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a statutory strategy for early intervention and school- and community-based measures for the mental health support of children and young people; and what assessment he has made of the potential risks of non-statutory measures failing to meet their stated objectives as a result of (a) changing circumstances, (b) differing interpretations and (c) possible cancellation.

We have no plans to make a specific assessment. On 12 April 2022 we published a call for evidence to seek views on a range of issues from prevention to acute mental health care, which closes on 7 July 2022. This will support the development of a new 10-year cross-Government plan for mental health and wellbeing.