Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to ensure that all people with a learning disability are included on a GP learning disability register.

Inclusion on the learning disability register is crucial to ensuring that people receive the right support at the right time. Anyone can ask to go on their general practitioner’s (GP’s) learning disability register if they think they have a learning disability. However, we know that not everyone with a learning disability is on a GP register. There is work underway in NHS England to address this issue, including work nationally and regionally to encourage children and young people to join the register at age 14 years old and access annual health checks.

NHS England has issued guidance to support GPs to better identify people who should be on the register, including information on specific diagnostic codes, which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/improving-identification-of-people-with-a-learning-disability-guidance-for-general-practice/