Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps (a) her Department and (b) the NHS is taking to (i) manage and (ii) reduce the growth of (A) depression, (B) bad nerves and (C) anxiety in the working age population.

We are investing £2.3 billion of additional funding a year by March 2024 compared to 2018/19 to expand and transform mental health services in England so that two million more people can get the mental health support that they need. This includes expanding NHS Talking Therapies for adults with common mental illness such as depression or anxiety, and including bad nerves.

The Spring 2023 Budget contained several packages that support mental health, including over £400 million to support the long-term sick and disabled to remain in or enter employment. This includes around £200 million for digital mental health, which is funding to modernise and digitise mental health services in England, providing wellness and clinical grade apps free at the point of use, pilot cutting-edge digital therapies and digitise the NHS Talking Therapies programme.

In addition, as announced at the 2023 Autumn Statement, we are further expanding and improving Talking Therapies from 2024/25 to 2028/29 so that an additional 384,000 people with anxiety or depression can benefit from accessing a course of treatment. The additional funding will also enable us to increase the average number of therapy sessions that each person can access, helping more people to recover.