Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of trends in the level of eating disorders; and what steps he is taking to help address the causes of eating disorders.

There are no plans to make a specific assessment. However, we would expect, as part of new policy design and development, that all policies with implications for eating disorders should consider existing evidence and seek the views of experts and stakeholders.

In recognition of the rising demand for eating disorders services created by the pandemic, we invested £58 million in 2021/22 to support the expansion of adult community mental health services, including those for eating disorders. We also invested £79 million extra to expand children’s mental health services in 2021/22, including enabling at least 2,000 more children and young people to access eating disorder services.

We know that eating disorders are complicated mental health conditions caused by a complex interaction of biological, psychological, and environmental factors. It is unclear exactly why someone develops an eating disorder.