Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to standardise the use of Pathological Demand Avoidance for autism diagnosis.

Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) is most often understood as a characteristic of, or observed in, some autistic people, but professional consensus on its status is still required. PDA is not a recognised and stand-alone diagnosis within the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or the International Classification of Disease.

It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including assessment services for autistic people, in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines.

The NICE guideline, Autism spectrum disorder in under 19s: recognition, referral and diagnosis, recommends that as part of autism assessments, healthcare workers should consider PDA, and carry out appropriate referrals.