Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what support his Department provides to people with autism.

The Department co-ordinates the Cross Government Autism Strategy originally published as Fulfilling and Rewarding Lives in 2010 and updated as Think Autism in 2014. The on-going actions of the strategy focus on assisting local implementation and multi-agency planning to deliver the aims of the 2009 Autism Act and help people with autism access services and support, and reach their potential. In support of the strategy, statutory guidance was co-ordinated by the Department and issued to local authorities and the National Health Service in 2010 and 2015.

Figures on the numbers of people diagnosed with autism in different parts of the country are not collected centrally.