Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the impact of social media on children and young people developing eating disorders.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
This Department, through the National Institute for Health Research, has funded a systematic review to explore the relationship between social networking sites and other online content, and body image and disordered eating in children and young people. The review is being led by the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre and we will report on findings in due course. We are also working with the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on the Online Safety Bill to fully consider pro-eating disorder content online.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with the Advertising Standards Agency on making digitally altered images of a human body or body part in advertisements clearly labelled as such for consumers.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The ASA’s existing rules on social responsibility and misleading advertising are already applied to advertising of cosmetic interventions and advertising featuring digitally altered images.
The ASA held a public consultation on cosmetic interventions in 2020 and are following this up with a call for evidence on body image this year. The Government will remain closely in touch with the ASA as they undertake this consultation. The government will be launching the Online Advertising Programme (OAP) later this year which will explore how to address harms in the content and placement of advertising online, and to ensure the regulatory regime for the online advertising ecosystem is coherent, clear and effective. As part of this work, the Government will be considering whether any additional measures should be brought forward to address body image concerns.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what mandatory education is provided to pupils and students at (a) schools and (b) universities on eating disorders.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Through our new compulsory relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum, pupils can learn about how to stay safe and healthy, and how to positively manage their academic, personal and social lives.
Body image and mental wellbeing are explicitly covered in the RSHE curriculum and, at secondary level, teachers may choose to discuss eating disorders when teaching these topics. However, schools are not medical professionals. It is important that school staff understand eating disorders to inform the pastoral support that they offer to pupils and how to seek specialist support where it is needed, particularly as there has been an increase in referrals to eating disorder services during the COVID-19 outbreak. The government’s £8 million Wellbeing for Education Return programme funded advisers in every local authority in England, reaching up to 15,000 schools with free expert training, support and resources for education staff to help them understand and respond to the mental wellbeing issues faced by children and young people. The department is providing an additional £7 million in this financial year to extend that support with an additional focus on directing schools towards the right local support.
Higher education providers are autonomous bodies, independent from the government and have a responsibility to support students with mental health conditions. They are well placed to identify the needs of their particular student body, including those who may have eating disorders. It is for each provider to determine what welfare and counselling services are needed by its students.
The government has set up the first waiting time standard for children and young people eating disorder services so that 95% of children with an eating disorder will receive treatment within one week for urgent cases, and within four weeks for routine cases. In the 2021-22 financial year, NHS England will receive around an additional £500 million to support recovery, which includes £79 million to expand children’s mental health services significantly, including allowing 2,000 more children and young people to access eating disorder services.
Asked by: Brendan Clarke-Smith (Conservative - Bassetlaw)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the effect of designating ice rinks as leisure facilities on access to that facility for skaters outside of normal working hours during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government’s ‘Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives’ sets out an ambitious strategy for reducing obesity and includes ensuring the use of appropriate language when associated with unhealthy weight.
In January The Minister of State for Digital and Culture provided evidence to the Women and Equalities Select Committee concerning how media representations can contribute to poor body image. Ministers and officials in my department are committed to reviewing this issue as part of the Online Advertising Programme Review, later this year.
My department also works closely with the Advertising Standards Authority to ensure advertising presenting misleading, exaggerated and irresponsible content is taken down. In 2019 the Advertising Standards Association enhanced their standards through the inclusion of a new rule prohibiting negative gender stereotypes. Ads which pressure the audience to conform to an idealised gender-stereotypical body shape or physical features are likely to breach this rule.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effect of the media representation of obesity on the stigma associated with living with overweight or obesity.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Government’s ‘Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives’ sets out an ambitious strategy for reducing obesity and includes ensuring the use of appropriate language when associated with unhealthy weight.
In January The Minister of State for Digital and Culture provided evidence to the Women and Equalities Select Committee concerning how media representations can contribute to poor body image. Ministers and officials in my department are committed to reviewing this issue as part of the Online Advertising Programme Review, later this year.
My department also works closely with the Advertising Standards Authority to ensure advertising presenting misleading, exaggerated and irresponsible content is taken down. In 2019 the Advertising Standards Association enhanced their standards through the inclusion of a new rule prohibiting negative gender stereotypes. Ads which pressure the audience to conform to an idealised gender-stereotypical body shape or physical features are likely to breach this rule.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking in response to NSPCC research which found that counselling sessions for eating and body image disorders among children and young people increased since the introduction of a national covid-19 lockdown in March 2020.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
We recognise just how important it is that people get the support they need with their mental health and we are aware of reports that demand for eating disorder services has increased since the COVID-19 lockdown in March.
Under the NHS Long Term Plan, an additional 345,000 children and young people will be able to access support through National Health Service-funded services or school- and college-based mental health support teams by 2023-24. We remain committed to delivering the core proposals of the children and young people’s mental health Green Paper, including the introduction of senior leads in mental health and mental health support teams in schools and colleges, as well as the piloting of a four-week waiting time for specialist NHS services.
We set up the first waiting times to improve access to eating disorders services for children and young people - so that by 2020/21 95% of children with an eating disorder will receive treatment within one week for urgent cases and within four weeks for routine cases. Latest figures show that in 2020/21 (Q2), 85.3% of urgent cases were seen within one week and 89.6% of routine cases were seen within four weeks.
In addition, NHS England has recently announced additional early intervention services for young people with eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia in 18 area across the country, which means teens or young adults coming forward with eating disorders could be contacted within 48 hours and begin treatment within two weeks.
The Government has also commissioned research into the causes and impact of body dissatisfaction and to explore how body image is experienced by different groups, including by different age groups such as young people.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to January 2020 NHS Digital figures showing an increase in hospital admissions for eating disorders, what steps he is taking to (a) prevent people from developing those disorders and (b) support people in those situations.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
Early intervention is beneficial for all mental health conditions. Our Green Paper on transforming children and young people’s mental health provision has the potential to significantly improve early intervention and prevention, which can help prevent problems continuing into or developing in adulthood.
The Government recognise that poor body image is a common problem and in most extreme cases can lead to eating disorders. This is why the Government has delivered a broad programme on body image which has included work with the advertising industry to develop young peoples’ ability to evaluate the images and messages they encounter in the media.
As part of the NHS Long Term Plan’s investment of an extra £2.3 billion a year by 2023/24, eating disorder services for all ages are being ramped-up across the country. This Government has invested £150 million over five years since 2014, to expand eating disorder community-based care for children and young people and we have seen positive results, with an increase in the total number receiving effective treatment in the community from around 5,000 in 2016/17 to over 7,500 in 2018/19. At least three in four children are now starting treatment within one week if urgent and four weeks if non-urgent.
Asked by: Ann Coffey (The Independent Group for Change - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress he has made on implementing the recommendations of the United Nations General Assembly of 17 December 2018 on the Rights of the Child; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The government remains fully committed to protecting the Rights of the Child and to give due consideration to the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) when making policy and legislation. This was most recently re-iterated in a written ministerial statement for Universal Children’s Day on 20 November 2018 (HCWS1093), which can be accessed here: https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-11-20/HCWS1093/. In support of this, all civil servants have access to online children’s rights training and to a template for conducting a Childs Rights Impact Assessment.
The UK will submit its next periodic report to the United Nations (UN) by 14 January 2022, reporting on ongoing government measures to implement the UNCRC in the UK.
The UN General Assembly had a particular focus on gender equality in relation to the Rights of the Child and urged states to eliminate all forms of discrimination against girls, particularly regarding access to and participation in education. ‘Gender equality at every stage: a roadmap for change’, published 3 July 2019 by the former Minister for Women and Equalities (Penny Mordaunt), my right hon. Friend for Portsmouth North, sets out the government's plans to address the persistent gendered barriers people face at every stage of life. The roadmap highlights plans to invest in programmes to increase participation, particularly by girls, in science, technology, engineering and maths education, to publish research and implement tools to tackle poor body image and examines how to engage boys and men on gender issues.
2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the UNCRC and the government is actively engaging with the UN to mark this important occasion and reflect on the work that we do to protect the rights of children in the UK and around the world.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support people who self-harm.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
The Prime Minister recently announced that tailored advice will be provided to parents on supporting their children’s mental health and well-being, including information on subjects such as stress, screen time, online bullying, body image and self-harm. This will be developed by Public Health England by 2020. This will accompany advice provided to children and young people through Public Health England’s Rise Above programme on dealing with difficult emotions and situations that can lead to problems such as stress, bullying and self-harm.
We are aware of a rise in young people self-harming, which is why we included a new key area for action to address self-harming in the cross-Government National Suicide Prevention Strategy in 2017. Our close work with the Home Office and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on their Online Harms White Paper will also help to tackle online harms associated with harmful suicide and self-harm content across the internet, including social media.
Asked by: Baroness D'Souza (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what specific measures they are taking to prevent self-harming in very young children.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The Government is committed to preventing self-harm among children and young people of all ages. In 2017 Public Health England introduced the Rise Above programme that offers advice to young people on dealing with difficult emotions and situations that can lead to problems such as stress, bullying and self-harm.
The current Healthy Child Programme (from 0-5 years old) aims to support early identification of problems with an emphasis on support for mothers and fathers or partners to provide sensitive and attuned parenting.
On 17 June 2019, it was announced that tailored advice will be provided to parents on supporting their children’s mental health and well-being by 2020 through the ‘Every Mind Matters’ campaign. This will include information on subjects such as stress, screen time, online bullying, body image and self-harm.
Ministers wrote to social media and internet providers on 26 January to express concern about suicide and self-harm content. The companies have committed to increasing their efforts by establishing and funding a strategic partnership with the Samaritans to tackle this content and support vulnerable users of their platforms.