Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, in regard to the provision in the Mental Health Bill that removes learning disabilities from the definition of a mental health condition, why the new joint executive team of the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England includes the post of National Priority Programme Director for Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism.

Under the proposed reforms to the Mental Health Act, learning disability and autism are still classed as a 'mental disorder', as they are under the existing Mental Health Act. The Mental Health Bill also introduces a new definition of 'psychiatric disorder' under the act, which covers all mental disorders other than learning disability and autism. In future, it will only be possible to detain those people with a learning disability and/or autistic people who also have a psychiatric disorder that needs treatment under the act. This change seeks to ensure that people are only detained when they have a mental disorder that warrants hospital treatment, and which has a reasonable prospect of providing a therapeutic benefit for that disorder.

Mental health, learning disabilities, and autism are all important areas in their own right for both the Department and NHS England, and require leadership at the highest levels to ensure services in these areas meet the ambitions we have set.

Our new proposed structure incudes several senior director roles responsible for leading on particular clusters of services, one of which will include mental health, learning disabilities, and autism.