Mental Health Services: Waiting Lists
(asked on 24th February 2026) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what was the average waiting time in 2025 for an NHS Talking Therapy appointment following referral.
This question was answered on 5th March 2026
The latest published annual statistics for NHS Talking Therapies services in England for 2024/25 show that the mean average waiting time in days between the date the referral request was received and the date of first appointment, where the referral had a first attended appointment in the year, was 21.5 days.
As of 31 December 2025, there were 118,988 open referrals to NHS Talking Therapies services in England yet to have a first appointment.