Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of changes to reimbursement mechanisms in the NHS on the funding for weight management services; and what the timelines are for the introduction of those changes.

Government departments work very closely on reducing obesity. Through the obesity strategy we are committed to expanding weight management services and will provide further details on this later in the year.

NHS England is responsible for funding allocations to clinical commissioning groups. This process is independent of Government and NHS England takes advice on the underlying formula from the independent Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation.

NHS England has advised that it does not routinely commission weight management services. However, funding for weight management services for those living with obesity plus diabetes and/or hypertension was allocated to NHS England and NHS Improvement through the NHS Long Term Plan. NHS England and NHS Improvement are commissioning a Digital Weight Management Innovation Platform which will allow general practitioners to refer eligible service users into weight management services.