Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the average time taken for an individual to receive a mental health (a) assessment and (b) diagnosis.

No such formal assessment has been made. The demand on National Health Service mental health services has risen significantly as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise in the cost of living on people’s mental health continue to be felt. The NHS is working to ensure that help is available for people as early as possible.

We are investing at least £2.3 billion of additional funding a year by March 2024 compared to 2018/19, to expand and transform mental health services in England so that two million more people can get the mental health support that they need. The Plan also commits to growing the mental health workforce by an additional 27,000 staff in the same period.

NHS England is working towards implementing five new access and waiting time standards for mental health services as part of its clinical review of NHS Access Standards.