Unemployment: People with Autism

Lord Shinkwin Excerpts

Thursday 25th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Speaker (Lord Forsyth of Drumlean)]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Shinkwin, is taking part remotely. I invite the noble Lord to speak.

[Lord Shinkwin (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I speak as the co-chair of the APPG on disability employment. One initiative that would benefit people with autism and disabled people in general, and which was in both the Labour manifesto and the 2024 King’s Speech, is an equality, ethnicity and disability Bill. Yet the Bill was pulled from the latest King’s Speech at the last minute by No. 10, despite the Bill manager, whom I met, having been appointed. Does the Minister appreciate the huge disappointment that this inexplicable decision has caused, and will she make every effort to ensure that the Government introduce the Bill in this session?

[Baroness Sherlock (Lab)]

The noble Lord raises an important point. I reassure him that the Government are completely committed to delivering on the manifesto commitment to introduce mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting for large employers. I know that my colleagues in the Cabinet Office are working hard on this and will introduce legislation as soon as parliamentary time allows. There is always competition for Bills in the Session, but I know that they are still committed to it. In March, as the noble Lord probably knows, the pay gap reporting consultation was published, showing how the proposed approach would work. Employers with 250 or more employees would have to report their workforce composition and ethnicity and disability pay gaps and take action to address that. It is very hard to solve something if we do not know the scale of the problem. I reassure him that the Government will do this as soon as possible.