Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what measures are in place to ensure that learning disabilities mortality reviews are completed in a timely manner following notification, and what steps they are taking to address any delays in the process.

Learning from lives and deaths – People with a learning disability and autistic people (LeDeR) is a service improvement programme established and led by NHS England. NHS England is committed to ensuring that all deaths notified to LeDeR are reviewed in a timely manner. This commitment has been maintained since a pilot scheme was introduced in 2016, nationwide in 2017. There is a national, published LeDeR policy in place clearly setting out requirements and expectations across England.

Integrated care systems are responsible for ensuring that LeDeR reviews are completed in their local area, and that actions are implemented to improve the quality of services and reduce health inequalities and premature mortality for autistic people and people with a learning disability.

The LeDeR policy sets the expectation that reviews are completed within six months of them being notified to LeDeR unless statutory processes prevent that being possible or family members of those bereaved have asked for the review to be delayed.