Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average waiting time for mental health (a) assessment and (b) treatment was in each of the last five years.

We do not collect the data centrally. However, this Government has for the first time legislated to enshrine parity of esteem and put into place waiting time targets.

We are moving forward the data and transparency agenda and a new dataset for mental health will be published by April this year.

It begins with data on Waiting, Access, and Outcomes for the Early Intervention in Psychosis Pathway. Initial data will be experimental, although once the data is more robust we will expand the dataset to other mental health pathways.