Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has set any targets for improving employment rates among autistic adults; and what additional support is being provided to employers to create neurodiverse-friendly workplaces.

In the plan to Make Work Pay (October 2024), government committed to raising awareness of all forms of neurodiversity in the workplace. This includes autism. We are supporting employers to be more inclusive in their workplace practices.

In January this year we launched an independent panel of academics with expertise and experiences of neurodiversity. This will build on the work of the independent Buckland Review which reported to the previous government in February 2024, and which focused more narrowly on autism employment. The panel will consider the reasons why neurodivergent people have poor experiences in the workplace, and a low overall employment rate, making their recommendations to employers and government later this summer.

The Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions and Business and Trade have also asked Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead the independent review Keep Britain Working. While not specific to neurodiversity, this review is considering how best to support and enable employers to recruit and retain more people with health conditions and disabilities, promote healthy and inclusive workplaces, and how to support more people to stay in or return to work. Sir Charlie Mayfield will deliver his final report in the autumn.

Our existing support includes:

• Connect to Work which will make supported employment available to around 100,000 people each year in England and Wales, including autistic people. This will build on Local Supported Employment, which is offering supported employment to people who are autistic, have a learning disability or both;
• Our digital information service, Support with Employee Health and Disability, which provides tailored guidance on supporting employees in common workplace scenarios involving health and disability, including supporting autistic employees or employees with learning disabilities; and
• The voluntary Disability Confident scheme which encourages employers to create disability inclusive workplaces and to support disabled people to get work and get on in work.

The employment of autistic people is estimated using data from the Annual Population Survey (APS), which looks at the employment circumstances of the UK population. It is the largest household survey in the UK and is the recommended source for employment-related statistics, such as estimates of the number of people in employment or unemployed.