Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people were waiting for treatment from community mental health services in the West Midlands in the latest period for which data is available.

Since July 2023, NHS England has included waiting time metrics for referrals to community-based mental health services in its monthly mental health statistics publication, to help services target the longest waits. Data in the Mental Health Services Dataset is known to be incomplete and these figures may be an undercount. Information on patients waiting to access NHS Talking Therapies services is not included. The latest information on wait times for NHS Talking Therapies is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-talking-therapies-monthly-statistics-including-employment-advisors