Oral Answers to Questions

Barry Sheerman Excerpts

Monday 9th May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Justin Tomlinson]

I gave a crystal clear, comprehensive response in the Westminster Hall debate, and I am sorry that the hon. Lady was obviously somewhat distracted. It is crystal clear that the individual in that film, who acted disgracefully, has rightly been removed. Progress in training and policies is being reviewed weekly. We have zero tolerance of such behaviour.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

10. What steps he is taking to help people with autism find work.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Disabled People (Justin Tomlinson)]

Working with the Autism Alliance, we are training a network of over 1,000 autism leads in Jobcentre Plus and developing an autism passport to record condition details and reasonable adjustments. In addition, Access to Work now has a hidden impairments specialist team to support people better, including those on the autistic spectrum.

[Mr Sheerman]

Will the Minister wake up and shake up his Department, because autistic people have a great deal of talent that gets wasted in this country? Only 15% of children on the autism scale end up working in a full-time job, so is it not about time that we took this seriously? I am a member of the newly formed Autism Commission, and we will help the Government, on a cross-party basis. Let us wake up to this tremendous potential, which is unexploited.