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 reduce waiting times for mental health services.

The NHS Long Term Plan aims to invest at least a further £2.3 billion a year into mental health services by 2023/24. This will allow an additional 345,000 children and young people and 380,000 adults a year accessing National Health Service-funded mental health support 2023/24. We are also trialling two four-week waiting time pilots for children and young people and adults.

In March we published the COVID-19 mental health and wellbeing recovery action plan, with an additional £500 million to address waiting times for mental health services.