Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to ensure the collection of data to record the waiting times for autism diagnoses in England in version 3 of the Mental Health Services Data Set will begin from April 2018.

Following completion of a consultation last autumn, NHS Digital announced that recording of data on waiting times from referral for suspected autism to a first appointment and subsequent diagnosis would be collected within the Mental Health Services Data Set from April 2018. In preparation for this, dialogue is taking place between National Health Service mental health trusts which will collate the data and autism diagnostic services about the new requirements. To support those local discussions, the Department has co-ordinated production of a guide which NHS Digital will circulate to trusts in March via their newsletter to provide further clarity. NHS Digital will monitor the quality of the data recorded and submitted from April 2018 and the intention is to publish a first formal report on this data during 2019.