Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to page 317 of the NHS Digital report, Mental health and wellbeing in England, Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2014, published on 29 September 2016, if he will commission research into the causes of the increase in self-harming among young women.

The National Institute for Health Research and the Department’s Policy Research Programme have no current plans to commission research on this specific topic.

In their report the Mental Health Taskforce recommended that the United Kingdom should aspire to be a world leader in the development and application of new mental health research. The Taskforce asked specifically that the Department, working with relevant partners, should publish a report by February 2017 setting out a 10-year strategy for mental health research. The final 10-year strategy is planned for publication in February 2017 and will identify future needs in mental health research.