Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure the adequacy of funding for the provision of NHS early intervention services for adult sufferers of eating disorders.

It is vital that everyone with an eating disorder can access quick, specialist help when necessary. The Government set up the first ever waiting time targets to improve access to eating disorder services for children and young people, supported by £30 million a year to develop 70 new or extended community eating disorder services across the country.

We are making good progress towards the children and young people’s eating disorder waiting time target, with January to March 2019 data showing 80.6% of young people started treatment for an urgent case within one week and 82.4% of young people started treatment for a routine case within four weeks against a target of 95% by 2020/21.

The NHS Long Term Plan committed at least a further £2.3 billion a year to mental health services by 2023/24. This investment will transform and expand services for people with mental health conditions, including eating disorders, building on our current targets.

The Long Term Plan also commits to investing in the development of services for adults with mental health conditions including eating disorders and testing four-week waiting times for adults and older adults’ community mental health teams with selected local areas.