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 reduce the length of time for adults over the age of 25 without an Education and Health Care Plan to be diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder; and what assessment his Department has made of the impact on those adults of the time taken for that diagnosis.

Local commissioners should have due regard to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guideline ‘Autism spectrum disorder in adults: diagnosis and management’ when commissioning services for their local populations. This guideline states people should wait no longer than 13 weeks between a referral for an autism assessment and a first appointment.

As part of the COVID-19 Mental Health and Wellbeing Recovery Action plan, we are investing £2.5 million in 2020/21 to improve the quality of adult diagnostic and post-diagnostic pathways and address waiting times. We have not made a specific assessment of the impact of delayed diagnosis on adults.