Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that patients with severe mental illness have adequate access to physical health checks.

The NHS Long Term Plan commits to 390,000 people with a severe mental illness receiving a full annual physical health check each year by 2023/24. As of quarter 2 of 2022/23, 239,372 people with severe mental illness received the complete list of physical health checks in the preceding 12 months, with more receiving at least one element of the physical health check.

Since 2021/22, NHS England’s Quality and Outcomes Framework has incentivised general practices for delivering all six elements of these physical health checks. As part of the £500 million funding from the Mental Health Recovery Action plan 2021/22, we have also provided £14 million to support the physical health of people living with severe mental illness, such as with physical health checks, or getting their COVID-19 vaccine.