Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve mental health services and reduce waiting times for those seeking treatment.

We are providing record levels of investment and increasing the mental health workforce to expand and transform National Health Service mental health services, to expand access and reduce waiting times. Between 2018/19 and 2023/24, NHS spending on mental health has increased by £4.6 billion in cash terms, as compared to the target of £3.4 billion in cash terms set out at the time of the NHS Long Term Plan. The plan committed to grow the mental health workforce by an additional 27,000 staff between 2019/20 and 2023/24. We are making positive progress, delivering two-thirds of this, approximately 17,000, by September 2023, with further significant growth expected by the end of this financial year.

The NHS is also working towards implementing five new waiting time measures for people requiring mental healthcare in both accident and emergency and in the community, for both adults, and children and young people. This includes working towards improving the quality of data that we have on waiting times for people requiring mental healthcare in both accident and emergency and in the community. NHS England began publishing this new data in 2023 to improve transparency and drive local accountability.