Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government by how much demand for mental health, ADHD and autism services is increasing or decreasing in each of the past five years for people aged (1) under 16, (2) 16-24, (3) 25-34, (4) 35-49, (5) 50-64, and (6) over 65.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the number of people in contact with National Health Service funded secondary mental health, learning disabilities and autism services, in each financial year between 2020/21 and 2024/25:
Age group | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
Under 16 years old | 593,297 | 776,750 | 869,206 | 915,617 | 986,814 |
16-24 years old | 499,690 | 595,233 | 642,990 | 640,187 | 678,667 |
25-34 years old | 385,511 | 438,756 | 500,668 | 542,170 | 606,461 |
35-49 years old | 424,031 | 466,396 | 525,588 | 581,642 | 661,362 |
50-64 years old | 331,311 | 357,524 | 388,097 | 418,523 | 449,505 |
65 years old and over | 563,811 | 609,373 | 647,310 | 675,575 | 685,797 |
UNKNOWN | 5,593 | 12,663 | 9,005 | 17,112 | 60,684 |
Source: Mental Health Services Data Set (MHSDS)
Notes:
The following table shows the number of people known to be in contact with NHS Talking Therapies in each financial year between 2020/21 and 2024/25:
Age group | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
|
Under 16 years old | 1,222 | 1,189 | 925 | 886 | 749 |
|
16-24 years old | 360,673 | 424,826 | 398,859 | 370,377 | 350,213 |
|
25-34 years old | 487,273 | 571,094 | 563,973 | 555,142 | 543,044 |
|
35-49 years old | 437,838 | 514,275 | 537,364 | 564,755 | 583,614 |
|
50-64 years old | 265,491 | 311,633 | 332,821 | 358,120 | 366,773 |
|
65 years old and over | 89,446 | 108,885 | 123,740 | 136,297 | 140,262 |
|
Source: Improving Accessing to Psychological Therapies dataset Notes:
| ||||||
Asked by: Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what interim arrangements are in place to ensure timely access to clinically appropriate treatments for patients with rare cancers, including metastatic ocular melanoma, while longer term commissioning decisions are under consideration.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government supports Scott Arthur’s Private Members Bill on rare cancers which will make it easier for clinical trials into rare cancers, including metastatic ocular melanoma patients, to take place in England by ensuring the patient population can be easily contacted by researchers. This will ensure that the National Health Service will remain at the forefront of medical innovation and is able to provide patients with the newest, most effective treatment options, and ultimately boost survival rates.
The Department remains committed to ensuring that rare cancer patients, including those with metastatic ocular melanoma, have timely access to treatment and tailored medical support.
Tebentafusp is a licensed treatment for uveal melanoma and has been recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and funded by NHS England since December 2024. Since funding commenced, over 100 patients have been registered to start treatment. At present, NHS England is not aware of any delays in access to Tebentafusp for eligible patients.
Alongside Tebentafusp, a policy proposition for melphalan chemosaturation was accepted onto the NHS England policy development work programme in March 2025, in line with the Methods for National Clinical Policies. Development of this policy is ongoing following receipt of the external evidence review. Progress updates are published through the NHS England Clinical Commissioning Work Programme, and NICE is concurrently updating its guidance. Until revised guidance is issued, the NHS continues to follow the recommendations in the current version.
The development of a Clinical Commissioning policy will determine both if the evidence is now sufficient to enable making the treatment routinely available and, if it is, whether to allocate service development funding to implement it across the NHS in England.
NHS England’s Individual Funding Request (IFR) Policy provides the framework through which requests outside routinely commissioned arrangements are considered. The IFR framework was last reviewed in 2022 and ensures fairness, consistency, and transparency in decision‑making across all applications relating to medicines, devices, or surgical interventions that fall within NHS England’s commissioning responsibilities.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what analysis they have undertaken of the relationship between socioeconomic disadvantage and the prevalence of mental health conditions, particularly among children and young people.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Research recently completed and funded by the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre has found that socioeconomic inequalities in children’s mental health are evident by age five and persist throughout childhood and adolescence. Further information is available at the following link:
Asked by: Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to introducing time-limited interim access pathways for rare cancer treatments where published clinical evidence and specialist expertise already exist but routine commissioning routes are not yet in place.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government supports Scott Arthur’s Private Members Bill on rare cancers which will make it easier for clinical trials into rare cancers, including metastatic ocular melanoma patients, to take place in England by ensuring the patient population can be easily contacted by researchers. This will ensure that the National Health Service will remain at the forefront of medical innovation and is able to provide patients with the newest, most effective treatment options, and ultimately boost survival rates.
The Department remains committed to ensuring that rare cancer patients, including those with metastatic ocular melanoma, have timely access to treatment and tailored medical support.
Tebentafusp is a licensed treatment for uveal melanoma and has been recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and funded by NHS England since December 2024. Since funding commenced, over 100 patients have been registered to start treatment. At present, NHS England is not aware of any delays in access to Tebentafusp for eligible patients.
Alongside Tebentafusp, a policy proposition for melphalan chemosaturation was accepted onto the NHS England policy development work programme in March 2025, in line with the Methods for National Clinical Policies. Development of this policy is ongoing following receipt of the external evidence review. Progress updates are published through the NHS England Clinical Commissioning Work Programme, and NICE is concurrently updating its guidance. Until revised guidance is issued, the NHS continues to follow the recommendations in the current version.
The development of a Clinical Commissioning policy will determine both if the evidence is now sufficient to enable making the treatment routinely available and, if it is, whether to allocate service development funding to implement it across the NHS in England.
NHS England’s Individual Funding Request (IFR) Policy provides the framework through which requests outside routinely commissioned arrangements are considered. The IFR framework was last reviewed in 2022 and ensures fairness, consistency, and transparency in decision‑making across all applications relating to medicines, devices, or surgical interventions that fall within NHS England’s commissioning responsibilities.
Asked by: Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have considered changes to the use of individual funding requests for rare cancer treatments, particularly the requirement for exceptionality, for patients who have no alternative clinically appropriate treatment options.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government supports Scott Arthur’s Private Members Bill on rare cancers which will make it easier for clinical trials into rare cancers, including metastatic ocular melanoma patients, to take place in England by ensuring the patient population can be easily contacted by researchers. This will ensure that the National Health Service will remain at the forefront of medical innovation and is able to provide patients with the newest, most effective treatment options, and ultimately boost survival rates.
The Department remains committed to ensuring that rare cancer patients, including those with metastatic ocular melanoma, have timely access to treatment and tailored medical support.
Tebentafusp is a licensed treatment for uveal melanoma and has been recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and funded by NHS England since December 2024. Since funding commenced, over 100 patients have been registered to start treatment. At present, NHS England is not aware of any delays in access to Tebentafusp for eligible patients.
Alongside Tebentafusp, a policy proposition for melphalan chemosaturation was accepted onto the NHS England policy development work programme in March 2025, in line with the Methods for National Clinical Policies. Development of this policy is ongoing following receipt of the external evidence review. Progress updates are published through the NHS England Clinical Commissioning Work Programme, and NICE is concurrently updating its guidance. Until revised guidance is issued, the NHS continues to follow the recommendations in the current version.
The development of a Clinical Commissioning policy will determine both if the evidence is now sufficient to enable making the treatment routinely available and, if it is, whether to allocate service development funding to implement it across the NHS in England.
NHS England’s Individual Funding Request (IFR) Policy provides the framework through which requests outside routinely commissioned arrangements are considered. The IFR framework was last reviewed in 2022 and ensures fairness, consistency, and transparency in decision‑making across all applications relating to medicines, devices, or surgical interventions that fall within NHS England’s commissioning responsibilities.
Asked by: Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of delays in commissioning decisions on (1) outcomes, and (2) quality of life, for patients with rare cancers.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government supports Scott Arthur’s Private Members Bill on rare cancers which will make it easier for clinical trials into rare cancers, including metastatic ocular melanoma patients, to take place in England by ensuring the patient population can be easily contacted by researchers. This will ensure that the National Health Service will remain at the forefront of medical innovation and is able to provide patients with the newest, most effective treatment options, and ultimately boost survival rates.
The Department remains committed to ensuring that rare cancer patients, including those with metastatic ocular melanoma, have timely access to treatment and tailored medical support.
Tebentafusp is a licensed treatment for uveal melanoma and has been recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and funded by NHS England since December 2024. Since funding commenced, over 100 patients have been registered to start treatment. At present, NHS England is not aware of any delays in access to Tebentafusp for eligible patients.
Alongside Tebentafusp, a policy proposition for melphalan chemosaturation was accepted onto the NHS England policy development work programme in March 2025, in line with the Methods for National Clinical Policies. Development of this policy is ongoing following receipt of the external evidence review. Progress updates are published through the NHS England Clinical Commissioning Work Programme, and NICE is concurrently updating its guidance. Until revised guidance is issued, the NHS continues to follow the recommendations in the current version.
The development of a Clinical Commissioning policy will determine both if the evidence is now sufficient to enable making the treatment routinely available and, if it is, whether to allocate service development funding to implement it across the NHS in England.
NHS England’s Individual Funding Request (IFR) Policy provides the framework through which requests outside routinely commissioned arrangements are considered. The IFR framework was last reviewed in 2022 and ensures fairness, consistency, and transparency in decision‑making across all applications relating to medicines, devices, or surgical interventions that fall within NHS England’s commissioning responsibilities.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the influence of (1) social media, and (2) greater public awareness, on self-diagnosis and subsequent formal diagnosis of mental health conditions; and what guidance they have provided to clinicians about those influences.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2019, the UK Chief Medical Officers published a commentary on the findings of a systematic review on screen-based activities and children’s mental health. They found an association between screen-based activities and mental health but could not establish causality. The commentary is avaiable in the document attached.
On 20 January 2026, the Government announced a forthcoming consultation on how to ensure children have a healthy relationship with devices, introduce rapid trials on measures to reduce screentime and limit access at night, and produce evidence-informed screentime guidance for parents of children aged five to 16 years old. This three-month consultation will be evidence-led, with input from independent experts, and will include determining the right minimum age for children to access social media. It will report in the summer.
Over the past decade, greater public awareness and reduced stigma around mental health have coincided with a rise in common mental health conditions and increased demand for National Health Service support, highlighting the need to better understand and address people’s needs.
The independent review into the prevalence and support for mental health conditions, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism will therefore examine a range of potential drivers of mental health conditions, the impact of clinical practice, including the role of diagnosis, opportunities for prevention and early intervention, and models of support within and beyond the NHS.
The review’s Terms of Reference are published on the GOV.UK website, in an online only format.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 22 January 2026 to Question 106495, what assessment has been made of the reasons for the 25% reduction in the numbers of those aged 75 and over self referring for bowel cancer screening between 2023 and 2024.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Calvin Bailey (Labour - Leyton and Wanstead)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether any additional evidence published since the UK National Screening Committee’s draft recommendation in November will be considered before a final decision is made on prostate cancer screening.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, where responsibility for national leadership and accountability for obesity and weight management services will sit following the abolition of NHS England; and what steps he is taking to prevent regional variation in access to those services.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.