Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase awareness among parents of safe sleeping practices for babies.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Advice on safe sleeping is provided to parents through health visitors, midwives and early years professionals at key points during pregnancy and a child’s early months, in line with nationally recognised guidance. Best Start Family Hubs act as a front door to this support, bringing together health, early years and family services so parents can easily access trusted, in-person advice on infant care, including safe sleeping.

Alongside this, the Best Start in Life website, which launched on 1 September 2025, brings together information and support from across government in one place, making it easier for parents to find clear, reliable guidance on topics such as safe sleeping when they need it.

The department is continuing to invest in Best Start Family Hubs, strengthening their role as a universal access point for families and ensuring parents can benefit from both high-quality local support and joined-up digital services. These hubs are part of a wider Best Start in Life strategy, backed by over £900 million over the next three years, to expand family services, bring support together in one place, and make it easier for parents to get the help they need. Hundreds of Best Start Family Hubs are now open across England, with more on the way as we work towards having hubs in every local authority by 2028.

We are also updating the wording in the Early Years Foundation stage statutory framework to make the safe sleep requirements clearer. This new wording will come into force in September 2026, subject to parliamentary procedure. I have sent a letter to early years providers via Ofsted outlining these changes. Additionally, we have published a safer sleep article on the ‘Help for early years providers’ platform to help early years settings understand how to ensure babies and children are kept safe whilst sleeping.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve standards in schools.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The ‘Every Child Achieving and Thriving’ White Paper sets a clear path to ensuring every child can achieve and thrive, from tackling the scourge of child poverty to securing the highest school standards for all young people.

When children born under this government finish secondary school, it is our ambition that all children achieve higher standards and the disadvantage gap will be halved. We will take children’s education experience from narrow to broad. This includes a renewed curriculum, setting children up to thrive in the modern world. Our reformed curriculum will deliver high standards for all, delivering strong foundations in oracy, reading, writing and maths, and offering a triple science entitlement for all pupils. This is alongside improving transitions and providing an enrichment entitlement for every child.

We will ensure children who for too long have been sidelined are included, raising standards and providing stretch and challenge for all no matter their starting point, targeting deprivation funding to boost outcomes for the most disadvantaged children and launching two place-focused missions to provide a blueprint for national change. Our ambitious special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reforms will ensure children and young people with SEND get the support they need. The government consultation on SEND is ongoing until 18 May 2026.

We will move children and communities from withdrawn to engaging with education. We will introduce a new pupil engagement framework, support schools to improve behaviour, attendance and parental engagement, and give parents a clearer view of their child’s education.

To deliver this change, we will strengthen the foundations of our education system. We will invest in high quality staff, promote school collaboration, drive standards through new Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence teams and realise opportunities from data, artificial intelligence and technology.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the bilateral criminal records sharing agreements with (a) Albania, (b) Kosovo and (c) the Five Eyes Alliance when vetting individuals seeking residency in the UK.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

We take the issue of preventing foreign criminals entering the UK extremely seriously, and we continue to strengthen our borders so that we can prevent crime and protect the public, delivering on this Government’s commitment totackle foreign criminality.

For example, those required to obtain a visa to enter the UK are checkedagainst a range of police, security and immigration databases for details of any UK or overseas criminal record. All applicants are required to provide details of their criminal history. Where it is found that they failed to declare relevantoffences/convictions, their application will be refused, and they will be subject to a ten-year ban from applying to enter the UK.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of information-sharing through INTERPOL channels with non-EU member states on individuals seeking residency in the UK.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

We take the issue of preventing foreign criminals entering the UK extremely seriously, and we continue to strengthen our borders so that we can prevent crime and protect the public, delivering on this Government’s commitment totackle foreign criminality.

For example, those required to obtain a visa to enter the UK are checkedagainst a range of police, security and immigration databases for details of any UK or overseas criminal record. All applicants are required to provide details of their criminal history. Where it is found that they failed to declare relevantoffences/convictions, their application will be refused, and they will be subject to a ten-year ban from applying to enter the UK.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is taking to ensure people arriving from (a) EU states and (b) non-EU sates are subject to criminal record checks when entering the UK.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Border Force performs checks on 100% of passengers arriving at the UK border on scheduled services, enabling interventions against those known or suspected to pose a risk to the national interest.

Border Force work alongside other law enforcement agencies at the border and will share information and refer cases when necessary to detect and deter criminality.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

Whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of publishing levels of welfare spending on foreign nationals by benefit type.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

My Department remains focussed on ensuring we provide robust, transparent data where this is available.

That is why we regularly publish quarterly official statistics on the number of Universal Credit claimants broken down by immigration status type and nationality group, as well as whether claimants are in work. We have no plans to change this approach.

In benefits other than Universal Credit, nationality and immigration status is not held or collected on digital systems in a way that allows it to be extracted for the publication as official statistics.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his department is taking to ensure people living with bowel cancer can access suitable support.

Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government and the National Health Service are taking crucial steps to improve cancer experience for patients across England, including for bowel cancer.

NHS England aims to empower individuals with choice and control over their health and care through personalised care, focusing on promoting independence, good health, and well-being. This includes provision of information, empowering people to manage their care and the impact of their cancer. Where appropriate, every person diagnosed with bowel cancer will have access to personalised care, including a needs assessment, a care plan, and health and wellbeing information and support.

The recently published National Cancer Plan aims to redesign cancer services around people’s lives, not just around hospitals, recognising that more people are living for longer with and beyond cancer and need ongoing, coordinated support. We will ensure patients have a named neighbourhood lead to help coordinate their care locally, working alongside hospital specialists to provide continuity, reduce fragmentation, and make it easier for people to navigate services. More cancer care and support will be delivered closer to home, including a universal digital-first prehabilitation offer, expanded supportive oncology, greater use of virtual monitoring, and growing opportunities for treatment and follow-up in community settings where safe and appropriate.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his department is taking to raise awareness of the symptoms of bowel cancer.

Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is determined to cut waiting times and improve outcomes for all cancers, including bowel cancer. The National Cancer Plan was published on 4 February 2026, which will ensure that three in every four people diagnosed with cancer are either cancer‑free or living well five years after diagnosis.

Early diagnosis is a key priority and the plan commits to develop and deliver more proactive approaches to identifying people at risk of cancer through symptomatic case finding, additional support for general practitioners (GPs), and genomic testing. The Department will continue to support the Gateway C digital training platform, and a new generation of digital support tools will help to flag concerning symptoms or test results to GPs for all cancers. As part of this, NHS England will pilot an incentive which encourages the use of electronic safety netting to increase the number of people who complete checks for bowel cancer.

Further actions to improve early diagnosis of bowel cancer includes rolling out increased faecal immunochemical test sensitivity aimed at catching more cancers earlier. The programme, with lowered threshold and combined with increased uptake, will deliver 17,000 earlier diagnoses by 2035.

The NHS Bowel Cancer screening Programme already offers people aged 50 to 74 years old screening every two years. The programme is undergoing several updates to its standards aimed at improving coverage, accessibility, and early detection. This includes updated performance thresholds, and improved accessibility of bowel cancer screening kits.

The NHS Cancer Programme commissioned the Royal College of Surgeons to deliver new cancer clinical audits, which included an audit for bowel cancer, with the aim to strengthen cancer services by looking at all treatments and patient outcomes across England and Wales and reduce inequalities across the country.

Finally, on raising awareness, NHS England also runs national campaigns, most recently in early 2025, to increase knowledge of cancer symptoms, address barriers to acting on them, and to encourage people to see their GP as soon as possible if they notice a change in their health. The campaigns cover bowel cancer and have focused on increasing awareness of a range of symptoms, as well as encouraging general body awareness, to help people spot symptoms across a wide range of cancers at an earlier point.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his department is taking to provide earlier diagnosis for bowel cancer.

Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is determined to cut waiting times and improve outcomes for all cancers, including bowel cancer. The National Cancer Plan was published on 4 February 2026, which will ensure that three in every four people diagnosed with cancer are either cancer‑free or living well five years after diagnosis.

Early diagnosis is a key priority and the plan commits to develop and deliver more proactive approaches to identifying people at risk of cancer through symptomatic case finding, additional support for general practitioners (GPs), and genomic testing. The Department will continue to support the Gateway C digital training platform, and a new generation of digital support tools will help to flag concerning symptoms or test results to GPs for all cancers. As part of this, NHS England will pilot an incentive which encourages the use of electronic safety netting to increase the number of people who complete checks for bowel cancer.

Further actions to improve early diagnosis of bowel cancer includes rolling out increased faecal immunochemical test sensitivity aimed at catching more cancers earlier. The programme, with lowered threshold and combined with increased uptake, will deliver 17,000 earlier diagnoses by 2035.

The NHS Bowel Cancer screening Programme already offers people aged 50 to 74 years old screening every two years. The programme is undergoing several updates to its standards aimed at improving coverage, accessibility, and early detection. This includes updated performance thresholds, and improved accessibility of bowel cancer screening kits.

The NHS Cancer Programme commissioned the Royal College of Surgeons to deliver new cancer clinical audits, which included an audit for bowel cancer, with the aim to strengthen cancer services by looking at all treatments and patient outcomes across England and Wales and reduce inequalities across the country.

Finally, on raising awareness, NHS England also runs national campaigns, most recently in early 2025, to increase knowledge of cancer symptoms, address barriers to acting on them, and to encourage people to see their GP as soon as possible if they notice a change in their health. The campaigns cover bowel cancer and have focused on increasing awareness of a range of symptoms, as well as encouraging general body awareness, to help people spot symptoms across a wide range of cancers at an earlier point.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure new housing developments are built with adequate space for emergency service vehicles to (a) enter and (b) manoeuvre.

Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Approved Document B (Fire safety) provides statutory guidance on meeting the requirements of Part B of the Building Regulations. It includes provisions relating to adequate vehicular access for fire and rescue services, including requirements on the width, and turning arrangements of access routes, so that fire and rescue service vehicles can both enter and manoeuvre within new housing developments. Building control bodies are responsible for checking that new developments comply with these requirements before work is signed off.

The Department does not hold centrally collected data on the number of existing homes with inadequate access space for emergency service vehicles.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what data his Department holds on the number of houses in the UK with inadequate access space for emergency service vehicles.

Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Approved Document B (Fire safety) provides statutory guidance on meeting the requirements of Part B of the Building Regulations. It includes provisions relating to adequate vehicular access for fire and rescue services, including requirements on the width, and turning arrangements of access routes, so that fire and rescue service vehicles can both enter and manoeuvre within new housing developments. Building control bodies are responsible for checking that new developments comply with these requirements before work is signed off.

The Department does not hold centrally collected data on the number of existing homes with inadequate access space for emergency service vehicles.

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 people whose homes have inadequate access space can access emergency ambulance services to their property.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Ambulance crews work within the national clinical scope of practice and operational guidance, supported by locally risk‑assessed procedures. This enables them to attend patients safely in a wide range of environments, including homes and locations that may be difficult to access. This includes the use of appropriate equipment, alternative access arrangements, and, where necessary, coordination with other emergency services.

This is set out in the NHS England Ambulance Service Specification, which defines the requirements for safe, effective, and responsive ambulance services across England. Detailed operating procedures for managing specific access constraints are implemented locally by ambulance trusts in line with the national service specification, with further information available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/ambulance-emergency-and-urgent-care-service-specification/

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 children with autism receive adequate support in Ashfield constituency.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed

The Government is committed to supporting people with neurodevelopmental conditions, including autistic people of all ages. Autistic children and people should have the right support in place, tailored to their individual needs, to live well in their communities. The Government’s 10-Year Health Plan will make the National Health Service fit for the future, and reforms to the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system focus on improving early intervention and support.

It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) in England to make appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including providing access to appropriate mental health support and services, as well as access to autism assessments and support, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.

Through the Medium-Term Planning Framework, published 24 October, NHS England has set clear expectations for local ICBs and trusts to improve access, experience, and outcomes for autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder services over the next three years, focusing on improving quality and productivity. There are also clear expectations that ICBs and providers fulfil their statutory SEND duties and support the Government’s SEND reform plans.

The Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB is working with system partners to review children and young people’s autism services and pathways to improve access to a system-wide, stepped support offer that aligns with current and emerging guidance.

The service aims to launch a new support and assessment model from April 2027. However, the autism support pathway redesign is part of a broader spectrum of work and transformation, owned by the health, care, and education system across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, and is a key priority in delivery plans for both city and county SEND programmes.

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 raise awareness of the signs of autism in adults.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed

The Government is committed to supporting people with neurodevelopmental conditions, including autistic people, and we are taking action to increase awareness and understanding of autism across the health and social care sector, education, and employment.

The Health and Care Act 2022 requires that, from 1 July 2022, health and care providers registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) must ensure their staff receive specific training on autism appropriate to their role. This will ensure that health and care staff have the right knowledge and skills to provide safe and appropriate care for autistic people. As part of this, significant progress has been made to roll out the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism which has been designed and is delivered alongside people with lived experience. Over three million people have now completed the e-learning component of the training and the statutory Code of Practice for this training has been published.

NHS England has also taken action to increase understanding of autism within mental health services specifically by supporting the transition of the National Autism Trainer Programme in mental health services to become embedded 'business as usual' training. 5,000 trainers have been trained who will be cascading the training to teams across mental health services, residential special schools and colleges, and youth justice settings. NHS England also commissioned the Royal College of Psychiatrists to deliver the National Autism Training Programme for Psychiatrists, with over 300 psychiatrists trained in the past three years.

Work is also underway to raise awareness of autism in education settings. The Schools White Paper, Every child achieving and thriving, and consultation on special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reforms published on 23 February outline plans to increase education staff understanding of SEND, including autism, through improved training and better access to experts, building on the Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools programme. The Every child achieving and thriving White Paper is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/every-child-achieving-and-thriving

The Government is also committed to raising awareness of all forms of neurodiversity, including autism, in the workplace and the Department for Work and Pensions launched an independent panel of academics with expertise and experiences of neurodiversity in January 2025 to advise on boosting neurodiversity awareness and inclusion at work.

Government responsibility for delivering research into autism is shared between the Department of Health and Social Care, with research delivered by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation, which includes the Medical Research Council (MRC).

The MRC generally focusses on early biomedical research, including cellular and animal models, while the NIHR funds translational and applied research, where treatments and interventions are tested in real world populations and health and care settings. An example of NIHR investment in autism research is the £2.8 million SAFE trial, which aims to develop interventions to better support and improve the wellbeing of families of autistic children. As well as funding research itself, the Department of Health and Social Care invests significantly in research expertise and capacity, specialist facilities, support services, and collaborations to support and deliver research in England, known as NIHR infrastructure. This includes the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, which has supported research into the brain signalling of individuals with autism to help develop a range of targeted medicine choices.

The NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including autism.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to support research into (a) causes and (b) treatment of bowel cancer.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed

Government responsibility for delivering cancer research is shared between the Department of Health and Social Care, with research delivered by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation, which includes the Medical Research Council (MRC).

The MRC generally focusses on early biomedical research, including cellular and animal models, while the NIHR funds translational and applied research, where treatments and interventions are tested in real world populations and health and care settings.

The Department of Health and Social Care recognises the crucial need for research into all forms of cancer, including bowel cancer. We are supporting research into bowel cancer across a range of areas.

This includes, for example, over £2.2 million of NIHR investment in the CONSCOP2 study, a randomised controlled trial designed to investigate a new approach to screening for right sided bowel cancer.

As well as funding research itself, the Department of Health and Social Care invests significantly in centres of excellence and collaborations, services, and facilities to support health and care research. Collectively these form the NIHR infrastructure. The NIHR infrastructure works with patients, clinicians, academics, and health services to support research into the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of bowel cancer. This includes the development of novel diagnostics, biomarkers, and therapeutic approaches as well as ensuring that effective bowel cancer innovations, once proven, are implemented nationally.

The NIHR continues to welcome high quality applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including bowel cancer. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to the public and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.

In addition, the National Cancer Plan has patients at its heart and covers the entirety of the cancer pathway, from referral and diagnosis to treatment and ongoing care, as well as prevention, and research and innovation. It seeks to improve every aspect of cancer care to better the experience and outcomes for people with cancer. This plan prepares the National Health Service to seize scientific breakthroughs, so patients benefit from the full power of modern innovation, by trialing new technologies such as the COLOFIT algorithm for bowel cancer.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government has made an assessment of the potential link between increases in digital communication methods and speech, language and communication needs in children.

Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

We recognise that digital devices are now a part of most children’s lives, and that their impact on development, health, and behaviour is complex and not yet fully understood. Last month, the Government published advice on screen use for children aged zero to five years old, which is available at the following link:

https://beststartinlife.gov.uk/screen-time-under-5s/

The Government has also launched the Children’s Digital Wellbeing consultation on measures to ensure children have healthy relationships with technology, mobile phones, and social media. The consultation is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/growing-up-in-the-online-world-a-national-consultation

In addition, the Government will produce evidence-based screen time guidance for parents of children aged five to 16 years old.

We continue to learn from ongoing studies including the Children of the 2020s longitudinal study, which is available at the following link:

https://children2020s.ipsos.com/

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 reduce the waiting time for NHS children’s speech and language therapy support in (a) Ashfield, (b) Nottinghamshire and (c) nationally.

Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Community health services, including children’s speech and language therapy, are locally commissioned to enable systems to best meet the needs of their communities.

The Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) recognises that waiting times for children’s speech and language therapy (SLT) remain too long in parts of Nottinghamshire, including Ashfield, and is taking action with system partners to improve access.

Since the 2023 Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) inspection of local services for children and young people with SEND, the ICB and partners have undertaken targeted transformation activity, including:

- introduction of a SLT advice line to support earlier intervention;

- refocusing clinical capacity to address long waits in autism pathways; and

- piloting open-access early years drop-in sessions for children under four year olds.

A revised service delivery model is being implemented across SLT pathways, including:

- group assessment of all two to three year olds;

- increased use of group-based therapy and parent-supported interventions; and

- enhanced parent/carer training to support children at home.

These changes will be implemented alongside additional improvements to the model, including building workforce capacity and capability and improving support to schools and early years settings.

Nationally, ICBs are being supported to reduce waiting times through an evidence informed Children and Young People Community Speech and Language Therapy Toolkit developed with speech and language therapists, children, families, and carers.

We have set a clear target through the Medium-Term Planning Framework for systems to work to reduce long waits for community health services, including speech and language therapy.

By 2028/29, at least 80% of community health services activity should take place within 18 weeks. This will be a key part of the shift from hospital to community. In 2026/27, ICBs and community health services providers must also develop plans to eliminate 52 week waits. Whilst targets are not service-line specific, capacity growth and waiting time targets should impact positively on children and young people’s speech and language therapy services.

NHS England is also working with the Department for Education to identify and support children with speech, language and communication needs to deliver the Early Language Support for Every Child programme in Early Years and Primary School settings. This programme is funding innovative workforce models to support early intervention for children with unidentified speech, language, and communication needs which may reduce exacerbation of need that might lead to a specialist speech and language therapist and/or Education Health Care Plan referral in the medium-term.

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 reduce assessment times for autism diagnoses.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed

The Government has recognised that, nationally, demand for assessments for autism has grown significantly in recent years and that people are experiencing severe delays accessing such assessments. The Government’s 10-Year Health Plan will make the National Health Service fit for the future, and reforms to the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities system focus on improving early intervention and support.

It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) in England to make appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including providing access to appropriate mental health support and services, as well as access to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism assessments, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines.

Through the Medium-term planning framework, published 24 October, NHS England has set clear expectations for local ICBs and trusts to improve access, experience, and outcomes for autism and ADHD services over the next three years, focusing on improving quality and productivity.

In April 2023, NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance for autism assessment services, which can be found at the following link:

www.england.nhs.uk/publication/autism-diagnosis-and-operational-guidance

This guidance intends to help the NHS improve autism assessment services and the experience for those referred to a service. The guidance also sets out what support should be available before an assessment and what support should follow a recent diagnosis of autism, based on the available evidence.

Since publication, NHS England has been supporting systems and services to identify where there are challenges for implementation and how they might overcome these.

In December, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, launched an independent review into the prevalence and support for mental health conditions, ADHD, and autism. This review will inform a new approach to mental health that reduces waiting times, improves the quality of care, and promotes prevention and early intervention.

The review’s interim report, published at the end of March, sets out the evidence reviewed so far on prevalence, describes the impact of rising demand for diagnosis and support, identifies where the evidence is uncertain, and outlines the key questions for the next phase. The final report, due in the summer, will make recommendations on how the Government, the health system, and wider public services can respond to increasing demand for support more fairly and effectively so that people receive the right support, at the right time, in the right place.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department have taken to help support research into the causes of autism.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed

The Government is committed to supporting people with neurodevelopmental conditions, including autistic people, and we are taking action to increase awareness and understanding of autism across the health and social care sector, education, and employment.

The Health and Care Act 2022 requires that, from 1 July 2022, health and care providers registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) must ensure their staff receive specific training on autism appropriate to their role. This will ensure that health and care staff have the right knowledge and skills to provide safe and appropriate care for autistic people. As part of this, significant progress has been made to roll out the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism which has been designed and is delivered alongside people with lived experience. Over three million people have now completed the e-learning component of the training and the statutory Code of Practice for this training has been published.

NHS England has also taken action to increase understanding of autism within mental health services specifically by supporting the transition of the National Autism Trainer Programme in mental health services to become embedded 'business as usual' training. 5,000 trainers have been trained who will be cascading the training to teams across mental health services, residential special schools and colleges, and youth justice settings. NHS England also commissioned the Royal College of Psychiatrists to deliver the National Autism Training Programme for Psychiatrists, with over 300 psychiatrists trained in the past three years.

Work is also underway to raise awareness of autism in education settings. The Schools White Paper, Every child achieving and thriving, and consultation on special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reforms published on 23 February outline plans to increase education staff understanding of SEND, including autism, through improved training and better access to experts, building on the Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools programme. The Every child achieving and thriving White Paper is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/every-child-achieving-and-thriving

The Government is also committed to raising awareness of all forms of neurodiversity, including autism, in the workplace and the Department for Work and Pensions launched an independent panel of academics with expertise and experiences of neurodiversity in January 2025 to advise on boosting neurodiversity awareness and inclusion at work.

Government responsibility for delivering research into autism is shared between the Department of Health and Social Care, with research delivered by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation, which includes the Medical Research Council (MRC).

The MRC generally focusses on early biomedical research, including cellular and animal models, while the NIHR funds translational and applied research, where treatments and interventions are tested in real world populations and health and care settings. An example of NIHR investment in autism research is the £2.8 million SAFE trial, which aims to develop interventions to better support and improve the wellbeing of families of autistic children. As well as funding research itself, the Department of Health and Social Care invests significantly in research expertise and capacity, specialist facilities, support services, and collaborations to support and deliver research in England, known as NIHR infrastructure. This includes the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, which has supported research into the brain signalling of individuals with autism to help develop a range of targeted medicine choices.

The NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including autism.

Energy Conservation

Energy Conservation

Found: Commission for Local Administration in England Kion Ahadi The Leasehold Advisory Service Lee Anderson

Found: Commission for Local Administration in England Kion Ahadi The Leasehold Advisory Service Lee Anderson

Found: Commission for Local Administration in England Kion Ahadi The Leasehold Advisory Service Lee Anderson