Autism Bill

Sadly, that may be the hon. Lady's personal experience of cases in her constituency. I, too, recognise the situation and, to be fair to the Royal College of General Practitioners, it also recognises it. For example, it would say that there is a lack of consistency of awareness of the availability not of a formal diagnostic assessment, but of a gateway, as was mentioned. The royal college's learning disabilities group is particularly concerned about the lack of services for people with autism, especially those with high-functioning autism or Asperger's syndrome. There is a danger that those people can fall in a gap between the specialist services of mental health and learning disabilities and really struggle to find specialist support. We will be looking out for that as we analyse the results of our consultation, due to end in September. I will be happy to share those results with hon. Members. We are committed to working with professional bodies to take action on training issues to address the needs of people with autism. That will form part of our work to develop the strategy on adults with autism. Although good practice may not be consistent, there are pockets around the country where GPs are responding well, as in the example that I quoted of the mother with two sons. It is also worth mentioning the Bradley review in that context. That independent review was commissioned to examine the extent to which offenders with mental health problems or learning disabilities could, in appropriate cases, be diverted from prison to other services, and the extent of the barriers to such diversions. The review has kept a broad remit and incorporated the range of mental health problems and learning disabilities across the criminal justice system. It made recommendations to the Government, including the organisation of effective liaison and diversion arrangements, and the services needed to support them. We will be convening a special event that focuses on the criminal justice system and autism as part of the programme of stakeholder engagement to support the consultation on the strategy. I believe that the autism strategy will improve the lives of people living with autism and their families through the key priorities of health, social inclusion, including employment and housing, choice and control, and training and awareness-raising. The strategy will be supported by detailed guidance to NHS bodies, NHS foundation trusts and local authorities. Although the autism strategy is a hugely important development, we have already moved forward significantly on our commitment to delivering improvements. On 2 April, world autism day, the Government published guidance for commissioners aimed at the NHS and local authorities. That sets out good practice for strategic planning of health and care services to meet the needs of adults with autism. I must also highlight that the devolved Administrations are developing, or have already published, guidance, strategies and action plans to support people with autism. Members have highlighted the lack of robust information on the number of people with autism in this country. That was a theme in the recent NAO report, "Supporting people with autism through adulthood", and at a hearing of the Public Accounts Committee earlier this week, but that problem is not confined to this country. It appears that many other countries worldwide share the problem. We are therefore commissioning a study on the prevalence of autism in adults and a public health observatory to improve further the data and knowledge in that area and to get a clearer picture of the number of adults with autism in England. We believe that that will be an important step in understanding our own population, and potentially make an important contribution to autism research internationally.