Startling gaps in the information the Government collects on mental health calls into question Ministers’ claims to treat mental health with the same importance as physical health, the Luciana Berger MP, Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Minister for Mental Health, warns today.

At the start of a month-long campaign to expose the lack of transparency, Luciana Berger reveals that gaps in data have left the mental health system unaccountable and struggling to meet people’s needs.

Every day during the month of April, Luciana Berger will share a question on mental health she has asked Government ministers which they have failed to answer. The topics of questions include waiting times for mental health treatment, the number of specialist doctors and nurses, and the number of patients who have died in inpatient mental health care. Shockingly, in the answers to all thirty questions, Ministers reported that the Government does not collect the information.

These alarming revelations follow a speech by David Cameron, last month where he claimed to be leading a “revolution in mental health treatment in Britain.”  This assertion from the Prime Minister follows numerous statements from the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt on the supposed “transparency revolution” going on in the NHS. In a recent speech, the Health Secretary claimed: “The transparency revolution going on in our NHS is crucial to driving up standards and making this the safest and most compassionate healthcare system in the world.”

Luciana Berger MP, Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Minister for Mental Health said:

“This is yet further shocking evidence of the gap between what Tory Ministers say about mental health and what they actually do.

“The Prime Minister promised to improve transparency and accountability in mental health, yet his Government is not even collecting basic data. It is absolutely appalling that Ministers have no idea how many new mums have taken their own lives because of mental health problems, how many people diagnosed with mental illness go to prison, or how many children have died in NHS mental health units. How can ministers claim to be focussing on mental health when they don’t have an accurate picture of what is actually happening on the ground?

“If Ministers couldn’t answer such basic questions on physical health there would be outrage. These findings cast further doubt over the Tory Government’s ability to deliver what they have promised and make mental health the real priority it deserves to be.”