Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the number of people on waiting lists for mental health services who had been waiting for first contact for (a) five years and over, (b) between three and five years, (c) between two and three years, (d) between one year and two years, (e) between six months and one year, (f) between three and six months and (g) less than three months on 31 January 2025, broken down by NHS region.

The information requested for secondary mental health services, including learning disability and autism services) is in the attached table. NHS Talking Therapies data is not included, and is published separately at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/nhs-mental-health-dashboard/

Since July 2023, NHS England has included waiting times metrics for referrals to community-based mental health services in its monthly mental health statistics publication to increase transparency and drive improvements in the quality of data and help services to target the longest waits. The data in the table will not align with these published statistics. For adult community mental health, the waiting list is defined as someone still waiting for a second contact whereas the data in the table are for people waiting for a first contact. However, for children and young people, the waiting list is defined as someone still waiting for a first contact.