Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's policy paper, Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives, published on 27 July 2020, what plans his Department has to introduce (a) specialist weight management clinics provided by multidisciplinary teams and (b) greater access to bariatric surgery for patients with severe and complex obesity.

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.

Through the new obesity strategy we are delivering a range of measures on weight management including a National Health Service 12-week weight loss plan app, expanding weight management services to help more people get the support they need, accelerating the expansion of the NHS diabetes prevention programme and making conversations about weight in primary care the norm. Further details about these measures will be available later in the year.