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 through the NHS Long Term Funding Bill to ensure parity in the funding of physical and mental health support services.

The purpose of the NHS Long Term Funding Bill is simply to enshrine in law the funding set out in the Long Term Plan, providing an extra £33.9 billion by 2023-24. That provides the National Health Service with the financial certainty it needs to get on and deliver the plan. The Bill does not set out the details of the plan itself or place restrictions on how the NHS should use the funding to support delivery.

However, at the heart of the NHS Long Term plan is the largest expansion of mental health services in a generation. This Government remains committed to putting mental health services on an equal footing with physical health. We are putting more money in and taking more action on mental health than any previous Government. We have committed at least a further £2.3 billion a year to mental health services by 2023/24 which will see spending for children and young people’s mental health services growing faster than the overall spend on mental health, which will itself be growing faster than the overall NHS budget.