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 provide additional mental health support for people affected by rises in the cost of living.

We remain committed to the aims of the NHS Long Term Plan, investing at least £2.3 billion of extra funding a year in expanding and transforming mental health services in England by March 2024. This extra funding will enable an extra two million people, including those who are affected by rises in the cost of living, to be treated by mental health services in the National Health Service by March 2024.

We have also been working with Treasury and the Money and Pensions Service to promote the Mental Health Breathing Space scheme. The Breathing Space scheme has been set up to provide support to people who are in debt and receiving mental health crisis treatment to essentially give people a ‘pause’ in their debt repayments so they can focus on recovery.