Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking (a) to measure the employment rate among autistic people and (b) to record autism in the Labour Force Survey.

Department for Work and Pensions officials have been considering how to robustly measure the employment rate among autistic people, including whether it might be possible to collect this information through the Labour Force Survey. Recent Labour Force Survey estimates of employment among disabled people published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) are currently subject to health warnings, while ONS investigate an unexpected increase in the number of people reporting disabilities from July-September 2017. We are awaiting further advice from ONS, following the conclusion of their investigations. We will further consider how best to collect information on employment among autistic people in the light of that advice.