Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when work on indicators recording a diagnosis of autism within the Health and Social Care Information Centre mental health services data set will be completed.

As recommended by the independent Mental Health Taskforce, the Department is undertaking a five year plan for the development of mental health data to be published by the end of the year. The plan will set out future requirements and timings for developing data to inform pathways of care, which will include requirements for autism in the Health and Social Care Information Centre Mental Health Services Data Set. It is too early to say what form the work on indicators for autism diagnosis will take and how long this will take to complete.