Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the recent Rethink Mental Illness survey which found that patients with severe mental illness wait on average 14 weeks for an assessment; and if he will make a statement.

The Government recognises that we need to go further in improving mental health services. The recent survey and publication of ‘Right Treatment, Right Time’ by Rethink Mental Illness provides a valuable additional contribution to discussions about priorities for mental health going forward.

The Government has asked the National Health Service to develop a long-term plan which will set out a vision for the health service and we have been clear that better access to mental health services, to help achieve the Government’s commitment to parity of esteem between mental and physical health, is one of the principles which must underpin the plan.