Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to enforce NICE guidance on Eating disorders: recognition and treatment, to ensure that people with a healthy BMI are not denied treatment for an eating disorder.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline on ‘Eating disorders: recognition and treatment’ makes it clear that a person’s Body Mass Index is just one of the factors that should be taken into account to determine whether to offer treatment for an eating disorder, but that it should not be used on its own.

Clinical commissioning groups and providers of healthcare are expected to have regard to national guidance and are responsible for developing their own local approaches to its implementation taking into account local priorities and needs.