Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of (a) the accessibility of online talking therapies for patients with mental health needs and (b) the effectiveness of those online therapies compared to face-to-face therapies since the start of the covid-19 outbreak.

Talking therapies delivered by Improved Access to Psychological therapies services will continue to be made available remotely so people can access help safely from home and the National Health Service will work to ensure the option of face to face support is provided to people with serious mental health illnesses across all ages where it is clinically safe to do so.

At present, we have not accumulated a sufficient number of patients who have completed a course of treatment that would allow the observation of improvement and recovery rates for each consultation medium. However, the recovery target, which states that at least 50% of people who complete treatment should move to recovery, was met in August 2020 where the rate was 51.9%.