Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to move the LeDeR programme onto a statutory footing to mandate the implementation of its findings following the data failures and publication delays associated with the 2023 LeDeR report.

There are no plans to move the Learning from lives and deaths – people with a learning disability and autistic people (LeDeR) programme onto a statutory footing. NHS England’s national LeDeR policy sets out a clear governance framework and expectation that integrated care boards (ICBs) should prioritise LeDeR reviews within their delivery plans and ensure that actions are implemented to improve services and reduce premature mortality for their local populations. Each ICB is also expected to have an Executive Lead for LeDeR and to produce an annual report about their local LeDeR findings, and to have an Executive Lead on learning disability and autism.

There are strong expectations and accountability mechanisms in place, which aligns with the ambition of the 10-Year Health Plan to distribute power to local systems and drive more holistic, ongoing support in the community. ICBs are held accountable to reduce health inequalities for people with a learning disability through existing national and local governance processes such as the NHS Operating Framework, annual assessments of delivery, and core performance indicators, including on LeDeR, to support improvement activities across all ICBs.