Andrew Bingham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bingham on 2014-04-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what criteria his Department use to define illness as mental as opposed to physical.

Norman Lamb

The International Classification of Diseases is the standard diagnostic tool for epidemiology, health management and clinical purposes. This includes the analysis of the general health situation of population groups. It is used to monitor the incidence and prevalence of diseases and other health problems.

The Tenth Revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems includes in Chapter V a detailed classification of more than 300 mental and behavioural disorders. Its publication follows extensive field-testing by more than 100 clinical and research centres in 40 countries.

Aggregate primary care trust (PCT) expenditure on mental health was £11.28 billion in 2012-13, which is 11.9% of the £94.78 billion total spend by PCTs. The estimate of expenditure on mental health does not include the majority of expenditure on primary care appointments which is recorded as a separate programme category.

It is not possible to provide an estimate of expenditure on physical health. A number of programme categories will have elements of expenditure which could be classified as non-physical, for example, learning disabilities, neurological and social care.

The Department has made no estimate of the cost to the economy of untreated mental illness.