Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether autism is considered a learning disability for the purposes of the covid-19 vaccination.

Although autism is not technically considered a learning disability, many autistic people also have a learning disability. On 24 February, the Joint Commission on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) published a clarification of their advice on vaccinating people with a learning disability. The JCVI confirmed that while their clinical view remains that those at greatest risk are people with severe and profound learning disabilities, they support the practical operational approach of inviting everyone on the General Practice Learning Disability Register to be vaccinated as part of cohort six in phase one.