Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve mental health (1) services, and (2) access, across England.

We are investing an additional £2.3 billion a year to expand mental health services in England by 2023/24 and support a further two million people to access National Health Service-funded mental health services. As announced in ‘Our plan for patients’, we will continue to increase the availability of mental health support for adults, children and young people.

We are also addressing disparities in mental health and wellbeing outcomes in groups which experience worse outcomes than the general population. In response to the ‘Mental health and wellbeing plan: discussion paper and call for evidence’, we received submissions from 5,273 respondents in England. We are currently considering these responses and further information will be available in due course.