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 to ensure local authorities are able draw on resources from the £500m fund designed to support better mental health outcomes.

In 2021/22, we provided £500 million to accelerate plans to expand National Health Service mental health provision and target groups whose mental health has been most affected by the pandemic. This included a £15 million investment in activity to promote positive mental health in 40 of the most deprived local authority areas in England. The Department monitors the delivery and impact of this funding through a quarterly Ministerial Mental Health Recovery Board.