Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of adults with eating disorders that are waiting for treatment from community mental health services; and what steps he is taking to reduce waiting times.

NHS England recently published data on adult community mental health waiting times, which includes adult community eating disorder services. Services are working throughout 2024/25 to improve the data quality for these metrics, to be more accurate from 2025/26.

At the end of January 2025, 206,603 referrals to community mental health services for adults and older adults with serious mental illness were waiting for a second contact. The median waiting time was 93 days, and the 90th percentile was 263 days.

As part of our mission to build a National Health Service that is fit for the future and that is there when people need it, the Government will recruit 8,500 mental health workers to help ease pressure on busy mental health services.

We are working with NHS England to consider options to deliver this commitment alongside the refresh of the Long Term Workforce Plan. This will focus on the three shifts to deliver our 10 Year Plan: moving care from hospitals to care in communities; making better use of technology in health and care; and focusing on preventing sickness, not just treating it.