Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make a comparative assessment of the adequacy of access to mental health provision in (a) urban and (b) rural areas.

Integrated care boards are responsible for providing health and care services to meet the needs of their local populations, taking into account local considerations such as access to services in rural areas.

Too many people are not receiving the mental health care they need, and we know that waits for mental health services are too long. We are determined to change that, which is why we will fix the broken system to ensure we give mental health the same attention and focus as physical health. This should help people in rural areas to be confident in accessing high quality mental health support when they need it.

We will recruit an additional 8,500 mental health workers across child and adult mental health services in England to reduce delays and provide faster treatment, including in rural areas. We will make sure mental health care is delivered in the community and close to people’s homes, through new models of care and support, so that fewer people need to go into hospital.