Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to tackle long-term mental ill-health resulting from covid-19 lockdowns.

Mental health services have continued to provide support throughout the pandemic. Community, adult talking therapies and children and young people’s services have deployed innovative digital tools to provide ongoing support.

We have also published the Mental Health Recovery Action Plan, supported by an additional £500 million in 2021/22. Of this funding, £110 million will be invested in expanding adult mental health services. This includes providing talking and psychological therapies, implementing the community mental health framework, investing in crisis services and maintaining the delivery of urgent mental health helplines. We are also allocating £79 million for children and young people’s mental health services. A further £2.3 billion a year will be invested in mental health services until 2023/24 to enable an extra two million people to access National Health Service mental health support.