Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve access to support for people with anxiety in Yeovil constituency.

The NHS Somerset Integrated Care Board is responsible for commissioning services to meet the mental health needs of the people in Yeovil.

People with anxiety can self-refer to NHS Talking Therapies or their general practitioner can refer them. NHS Talking Therapies offer evidence-based psychological therapies to help with common mental health problems such as anxiety.

Nationally, the Government is investing an extra £688 million this year to transform mental health services by hiring more staff, delivering more talking therapies, and getting waiting lists down. We are delivering on our commitment to recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers for children and adults by the end of this Parliament.  6,700 of these workers have been recruited since July 2024, meaning we are more than halfway towards our target.