Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to control and regulate the use of bariatric surgery.
We have made no such assessment. Clinical commissioning groups are responsible for commissioning complex obesity services for adults, which include all bariatric surgical procedures and the associated care. To help practitioners deliver the best possible care and give people the most effective treatments, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has produced a suite of guidance on reducing obesity including ‘Obesity: identification, assessment and management’. This includes recommendations on when to consider bariatric surgery for people who are obese.