Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to introduce national waiting-time standards for ADHD and autism assessments for under-18s; and what progress NHS England has made in improving the (a) collection and (b) publication of data on waiting times for (i) ADHD and (ii) autism assessments.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends a maximum waiting time of 13 weeks between a referral for an autism assessment and a first appointment. There is no wait standard for referral for an autism assessment to receiving a diagnosis of autism, and NICE guidelines for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis and management do not recommend a maximum waiting time standard from referral for an assessment of ADHD to the assessment being provided.

NICE guidelines are developed by experts based on a thorough assessment of the available evidence and through extensive engagement with stakeholders. They are not mandatory, but National Health Service commissioners are expected to take them fully into account in designing services to meet the needs of their local populations.

The Medium-Term Planning Framework, published 24 October, was explicit that integrated care boards (ICBs) and providers are expected to optimise existing resources to reduce long waits for autism and ADHD assessments and improve the quality of assessments by implementing existing and new guidance, as published.

NHS England publishes quarterly statistical data on waiting times within autism diagnostic pathways, which remain under constant review. This data is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/autism-statistics

For the first time, NHS England published management information on ADHD assessment waiting times at a national level on 29 May 2025 as part of its ADHD data improvement plan, and it has also released technical guidance to ICBs to improve the recording of ADHD data, with a view to improving the quality of ADHD waits and diagnosis data as well as publishing more localised data in future.

The most recent data, published in August 2025 and is available on the NHS England website, at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/mi-adhd/august-2025

Data in this publication is sourced from a number of existing NHS England datasets, and the publication is known to contain a number of data quality issues, further details of which can be found at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/mi-adhd/supporting-information