Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the proposed requirement for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to go through an individual funding request before each patient is able to access bariatric surgery on (a) patient health and (b) capacity of CCGs to respond to that requirement.

There is no national requirement for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to go through an individual funding request process before each patient is able to access bariatric surgery. The implementation and operation of CCG commissioning policies is a matter for individual CCGs to determine.

NHS England has therefore made no formal assessment of this proposed requirement on CCGs.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Clinical Guidelines 43 (updated November 2014) is clear about which groups of individuals bariatric surgery can benefit, with both clinical and cost effectiveness demonstrated, and attendance at Tier 3 services required first. Tier 3 covers multidisciplinary weight management services which are normally commissioned by CCGs.