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 trends in the level of referrals to community eating disorders services for children and young people being rejected solely on the grounds of weight or body mass index.

NHS England does not hold this information as rejection on the grounds of weight and Body Mass Index is not in line with any of the published guidance such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) clinical guidance on managing and treating eating disorders and the Eating Disorder Commissioning Guide, and should not occur. NICE’s guidance on eating disorders can be viewed via the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng69

Information on NHS England’s eating disorders programme is available here:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/cyp/eating-disorders/

For children and young people aged between eight and 18 years, the Government is investing £150 million to expand eating disorder services and staff for 70 extended or new established community eating disorder services. This means at least 3,350 children and young people a year will receive swift, effective eating disorder treatment in the community.