Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking with NHS England to ensure more timely data is published on the capacity of mental health services during winter.

The Mental Health Services Dataset and the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies dataset are the primary routine sources of information on mental health services activity.

Alongside the existing mental health data publications available across the system, NHS Digital has taken steps to increase timeliness of data on mental health services by releasing a provisional version of published monthly statistics early each month. However, it is important to note that the data quality of this provisional data is not as complete as the final data and will cover a lower set of providers.