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 (a) access to weight management services and (b) home working during periods of national restrictions as a result of the covid-19 outbreak on the prevalence of obesity.

Public Health England (PHE) has conducted qualitative research on the changes to weight management services during the first lockdown period. The research found that the COVID-19 pandemic had reduced access to weight management services with face-to-face services suspended. The impact of remote provision on client engagement and uptake appeared to be variable in England. PHE currently has no data available on the impact of the pandemic on population obesity prevalence as data collection on national surveys has largely been suspended due to the pandemic.