Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the physical shape of celebrities on the mental health of young people.

No such specific assessments have been made. We recognise that poor body image is a common problem for both men and women, and that body image dissatisfaction is a factor in disordered eating. However, eating disorders are complicated mental health conditions caused by a complex interaction of biological, psychological, and environmental factors and it is still unclear exactly why someone develops an eating disorder.