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 increase access to mental health services for victims of domestic abuse in (a) North Cornwall constituency and (b) other rural communities.

Too many people are not receiving the mental health care they need, and we know that waits for mental health services are far too long. This is why we will fix the broken system to ensure we give mental health the same attention and focus as physical health and that people can be confident of accessing high quality mental health support when they need it.

Nationally, we plan to recruit an additional 8,500 mental health mental health staff in England to reduce delays and provide faster treatment. It is important that all parts of the system, including health, policing and justice services, work together to protect domestic abuse victims.

Tackling violence against women and girls is a top priority for the Government, we have a mission to halve this violence in a decade. We are working across Government to deliver a transformative approach to this, underpinned by a new strategy to be published later in 2025.