Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people under the age of 18 were diagnosed with ADHD in the last 12 months.

Data on the number of children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is not held centrally, but may be held locally by individual National Health Service trusts or commissioners.

The Department is exploring options for improving data collection and reporting on waiting times for ADHD assessments and diagnoses, to help improve access to ADHD assessments in a timely way and in line with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidelines. In line with this, the National Institute for Health and Care Research has commissioned a research project to provide initial insights into local ADHD assessment waiting times data collection, and NHS England is currently scoping a national programme of work on ADHD, to understand more about the issues relating to ADHD service provision across the country.