Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) children and (b) adult eating disorder services that use the single measure of (i) body mass index or (ii) length of illness as the basis for offering treatment.

The information requested is not collected.

National Health Service eating disorder services should follow the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence clinical guideline for the recognition and treatment of an eating disorder, which states that services must not use single measures such as Body Mass Index or duration of illness to determine whether to offer treatment for an eating disorder.

The guideline is available at:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng69