Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing national guidance for autism diagnosis to reflect differences in how males and females (a) experience and (b) present neurodivergence.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline, Autism spectrum disorder in under 19s: recognition, referral and diagnosis, sets out considerations for clinicians when assessing for autism, including highlighting that this condition may be under-recognised in women and girls. The guidelines are available at the following links:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg142

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg128

NICE has committed to updating these guidelines; however, this work has not yet been scheduled into NICE’s work programme. NHS England published a national framework and operational guidance for autism assessment services in April 2023.