Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the average waiting time for autism diagnosis for (a) children and (b) adults in Hull West and Hessle constituency; and if he will make a statement.

We have made no such assessment.

Decisions on prioritisation and spending on autism diagnosis services are made locally by clinical commissioning groups and local authorities. The Department will continue to work with NHS England and other partners to help localities address long waiting times for an autism diagnosis.

We have included autism diagnosis and outcomes indicators in the Mental Health Services Dataset, with data being collected from 1 April 2018. This will bring more transparency to the process and help to drive up performance.