Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the evidence to support NHS eating disorder services routinely considering autism during eating disorder assessment and throughout treatment, including by routinely using autism screening tools alongside clinical judgement.

The Independent review into prevalence and support for mental health conditions, ADHD and autism, led by Professor Peter Fonagy, was published on 9 October, providing analysis and recommendations across a wide range of issues relating to the current scale of problems and needs in this area, and the current provision of services. The independent review found that eating disorders, alongside other mental health conditions, are more common in autistic people.

The Government issued an initial response on the day of publication, but we will set out the full action we are taking in response to the review recommendations in our new Mental Health Strategy to be published later this year, including in relation to the issues raised by the Hon. Member. The response is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-pledges-earlier-support-to-tackle-mental-health-crises