Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the compatibility of using BMI threshold criteria for joint replacement surgery and the Government's commitment to reducing health inequalities in regions with (a) lower life expectancy and (b) higher rates of obesity and musculoskeletal conditions.

It is the responsibility of individual integrated care boards to determine policies for their local area, including that of Body Mass Index (BMI) threshold criteria for joint replacement surgery. As with all surgery, BMI should be considered as one part of a holistic, personalised perioperative evaluation of the risks versus clinical need for joint replacement surgery of an individual patient.

The National Health Service and local government provide a range of services to help people living with overweight and obesity to manage their weight, which may include individuals waiting for joint replacement surgery, where they meet other eligibility criteria. These range from multi-component behavioural programmes, such as the NHS Digital Weight Management Programme, to specialist services for those living with severe obesity and associated co-morbidities.