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 equality in diagnosis and treatment of mental health problems among LGBT+ youth; and if he will make a statement.

The Government is investing an additional £1 billion by 2020 to deliver a major expansion of mental health services.

Access to mental health services is based on clinical need. It is important that the National Health Service accommodates the requirements of individuals who identify with particular protected characteristics through staff training, awareness raising and reasonable adjustments to services.

To improve the offer to all children and young people, the Government published ‘Transforming children and young people’s mental health provision: a green paper’ on 4 December 2017. This sets out an ambitious set of proposals to transform support for children and young people’s mental health, including those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+).