Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate her Department has made of the average time from first contact with the NHS specialist mental health services to the commencement of regular talking therapy treatment for someone with a mental health condition receiving treatment through talking therapy.

In England, for the reporting period of 2022/23, there were 1,215,329 referrals to the NHS Talking Therapies programme, where treatment was started within the same period. The average waiting time from a referral being received to first treatment was 19.8 days. For the reporting period of February 2024, there were 109,260 referrals that started treatment within the same period, with an average 17.1 day wait from referral to first treatment. A referral has accessed services when the patient has attended their first treatment appointment, or an Internet Enabled Therapy log has been recorded for them.