Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of the £44 billion of additional funding announced in the 2021 Spending Review he plans to allocate to mental health services.

Following the outcome of the 2021 Spending Review, spending plans for individual budgets in 2022/23 to 2024/25 inclusive are subject to a detailed financial planning exercise and will be finalised in due course. However, we are investing £300 million to eradicate mental health dormitories by 2024/25 and £150 million for improvements in the mental health estate. This includes investing in National Health Service mental health facilities linked to accident and emergency departments and enhancing patient safety in mental health units.

We are also investing £500 million over three years to transform Start for Life and family help services. Of this, £100 million has been allocated to infant and parent mental health services across 75 local authorities. This is in addition to the commitment to increase spending on mental health services in England by at least £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24 and £500 million provided in 2021/22 to address waiting times for mental health services and invest in the NHS workforce.