Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people with autism have been sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983 in each of the last five years.

The following table shows the number of autistic people admitted to mental health inpatient care under the Mental Health Act 1983 within each year between 2020 and 2024, based on the Assuring Transformation data collection as of 28 February 2025:

Source: Assuring Transformation data collection, NHS England.

Notes:

1. counts are rounded to the nearest five, in line with the Assuring Transformation disclosure control rules, to protect patient confidentiality;
2. this data includes people recorded as being autistic with no learning disability, and those with a learning disability who are also autistic, who were admitted to mental health inpatient care under the Mental Health Act 1983 within each year between 2020 and 2024. Where a person was admitted under the Mental Health Act more than once in the year, they are only counted once;
3. this data excludes people recorded as detained under other acts, for instance the Criminal Procedure (Insanity) Act 1964, or the Mental Capacity Act, and those who are recorded as informal patients; and
4. Assuring Transformation is a live data set and the information on a person’s stay in hospital, including legal status, may be updated in the record if the person’s status changes. These counts will reflect legal status, as defined by the Mental Health Act legal status classification code, and as it is recorded in the latest data cut, which for some patients may not reflect their status on admission.