Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what oversight exists for diagnostic standards in private mental health services, in particular online assessment platforms.

Clinicians delivering diagnoses are professionally regulated by bodies such as the General Medical Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, and the Health and Care Professions Council, whose standards apply equally to private practice.

For online assessment platforms specifically, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) operates an early value assessment (EVA) process that conditionally recognises some digital healthcare technologies while further evidence is generated. These evaluations draw on a combination of research evidence and expert review of relevance and potential impact. NICE EVAs have been published for several tools that provide mental health pre-assessment information gathering or deliver digitally enabled therapies. These can be found on the NICE website. NICE EVAs are specifically intended to support early adoption within National Health Service commissioned services, but private providers may choose to use the EVA findings as a benchmark for decisions.