Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to reduce waiting times for mental health care support for (a) adults and (b) children.

We have already introduced the first ever access and waiting time standards for mental health services, including for children and young people’s eating disorder services, for early intervention for people experiencing a first episode of psychosis and for accessing psychological and talking therapies. These are being met or are on track for delivery by the end of 2020/21.

The National Health Service has also committed to testing and rolling out comprehensive waiting time standards for adults and children as part of the NHS Long Term Plan.