Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many adults were referred for assessment of a suspected eating disorder in (a) 2016-17 and (b) 2017-18; and what proportion of those referrals were made to an eating disorders service.

The information requested is collected in two ways in the Mental Health Services Dataset. The information available is shown in the following tables.

Number of adults (age 18 and over at time of referral) referred to specialist secondary mental health services with a primary reason for referral of eating disorders, 2016-17 and 2017-18.

Source: Mental Health Services Dataset - NHS Digital

Note:

This is a record of referrals to specialist secondary mental health services for which the Primary Reason for Referral (Mental Health) is code 12 (Eating Disorders)

Number of adults (age 18 and over at time of referral) referred to an eating disorders service, with a primary reason for referral of eating disorders, 2016-17 and 2017-18.

Source: Mental Health Services Dataset - NHS Digital

Note:

This is a record of referrals to Specialist Mental Health Services code 'C03' (Eating Disorders/Dietetics Service)

There are data quality issues with both data sets and increases in numbers may be the result of improving coverage and data quality rather than a reflection of service activity.

The number of submitters to the Mental Health Services Dataset increased from 85 in April 2016 to 108 in March 2018. Therefore, the figures shown are known to be incomplete at England level.