People with a Learning Disability and Autistic People: Eighth Annual Report

Tuesday 27th January 2026 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Dr Zubir Ahmed)]

I would like to acknowledge today the publication of the updated eighth report on “Learning from lives and deaths—People with a learning disability and autistic people” (LeDeR) produced by King’s College London. This replaces a previous version of the report which was retracted in December 2025 due to a technical issue with the LeDeR data. I will place a copy of the revised report in the Library of both Houses.

This Government are committed to improving care and reducing health inequalities for people with a learning disability and autistic people. We understand how important the timely and accurate release of information on LeDeR is in achieving this goal.

Following urgent investigation, the errors were found to be caused by an automated data-processing issue, which meant that some data on causes of death was missing at the time of analysis. This affected the conclusions originally published. I recognise how concerning the retraction will have been for bereaved families and stakeholders who place great trust in the LeDeR process. NHS England has worked with its data processor to correct the automated processing error so that it cannot recur. King’s College London has also strengthened its data checking protocols to prevent similar issues in the future. I am assured that this issue has now been resolved, and these improvements have been applied to the revised report published today.

The headline findings of the updated 2023 LeDeR report remain consistent with those previously published. The updated analysis reaffirms that people with a learning disability continue to experience significant health inequalities: on average, they die 19.5 years younger than the general population and are almost twice as likely to die from an avoidable cause of death. This remains unacceptable, and tackling these disparities continues to be a priority for this Government.

NHS England sets clear expectations for local systems, requiring integrated care boards to prioritise LeDeR reviews in their delivery plans and produce an annual report demonstrating how learning from those reviews has driven action. In addition, there is wider, significant work under way to reduce health inequalities for people with a learning disability and autistic people—including mandatory training on learning disability and autism for health and care staff, continued uptake of annual health checks, and roll out of a reasonable adjustment digital flag.

The updated report contains the following specific changes:

Review of lives and deaths (2021-23)

The proportion of deaths classed as avoidable is now higher than originally reported, particularly in 2023 (40.2% v. 38.8%), although the downward trend over time remains. Influenza and pneumonia remain the leading avoidable cause but account for a smaller share, while ischaemic heart disease contributes a larger share. Cerebrovascular disease replaces digestive cancers among the leading avoidable causes. The ranking of overall causes of death has also changed, with diseases of the circulatory system now the most common cause.

Ethnicity

There are small changes in the proportion of deaths classified as avoidable by ethnic group, with slightly lower percentages among ethnic minority groups and a slightly higher percentage among white adults. There are small shifts in the relative contribution of leading causes of death by ethnic group. These changes do not alter the overall conclusions, with avoidable mortality remaining higher among several ethnic minority groups than white adults and the general population.

Level of learning disability

Avoidable mortality is higher than originally reported for both adults with a mild or moderate learning disability and those with a severe or profound learning disability. The difference between these groups is now considerable. While there are small changes in the proportions of overall and avoidable causes of death, the ordering of causes remains unchanged, and the overall interpretation of differing mortality patterns by level of learning disability is not altered.

Autistic adults

There are small changes in the proportions of causes of death among autistic adults without a learning disability. The largest shift is in deaths by suicide, which increase from 29.1% to 31.5%. This does not alter the overall interpretation of findings. Evidence on causes of death for autistic adults without a learning disability is emerging. The number of deaths notified to LeDeR remains small, meaning findings are unlikely to be fully representative of the population of people who are autistic.

[HCWS1276]