Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment he has made of levels of progress between waiting lists for mental health services and elective physical health treatments.

The Government recognises that people are waiting too long to access National Health Service mental health services. We have already taken significant steps to stabilise and improve NHS mental health services, but there is much more to do. Transforming the system will take time, but we are committed to delivering a new approach through a new mental health strategy for England, which will be published later this year.

Since July 2024, progress has been made in tackling waiting lists for adult community mental health services, alongside continued service expansion. We have recruited 8,500 extra mental health staff, three years ahead of schedule. The waiting time standard for NHS Talking Therapies, that 75% of patients should have a first appointment within six weeks of referral, and that 95% should have a first appointment within 18 weeks of referral, are regularly met.

NHS England’s Medium Term Planning Framework for 2026-27 sets the expectation that integrated care boards reduce the longest waits for children and young people’s community mental health services by improving productivity and reducing local inequalities and unwarranted variation in access.

The following table shows the number of open adult community mental health referral-spells waiting for a second contact at the end of the reporting period, as well as the number of open children and young people’s mental health referral-spells waiting for a first contact at the end of the reporting period, for July 2024 and March 2026, and specifically that the numbers of open referral-spells waiting to start meaningful treatment in adult community mental health services has decreased by approximately 18,500:

Mental health waiting lists differ from elective physical health waiting lists in a number of important ways. Mental health pathways are typically more varied and less standardised, with treatment often involving multiple contacts. There are also differences in how waiting times are measured.

That is why the Department is working with NHS England to improve the measurement and consistency of waiting time data across mental health services, including through the development of measures that will consistently capture when a patient has received meaningful help and started treatment across different areas.

This work will support future decisions on the potential role of waiting time standards as part of wider service reform. The Mental Health Strategy will be informed by the Call for the Evidence, and recommendations from the independent review into prevalence and support for mental health conditions, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism, alongside wider evidence and engagement with clinicians and people with lived experience.

The Government remains committed to giving mental health the same focus and priority as physical health. Through the forthcoming cross-Government Mental Health Strategy, we will continue to take action to improve access, tackle inequalities, and reduce waiting times so that people receive the support they need as early as possible.