Phil Hope (Minister of State (Care Services; Minister for the East Midlands), Department of Health; Corby, Labour)

I am delighted to be back here in Committee this afternoon and, indeed, proud to be speaking to Government new clauses 1 to 5.

Turning first to Government new clause 1, as the Committee knows, the Government are committed to taking action to improve services for people with autism.  We are determined to see true transformational change. Our means for achieving that is through the development and publication of an adult autism strategy. The full public consultation on the content of that strategy began last month, which in itself is an indication of our commitment to it. I therefore have great pleasure in introducing a measure to place that commitment on a statutory footing.

Briefly, subsection (1) places a duty on the Secretary of State to prepare and publish a document setting out a strategy for meeting the needs of adults in England with autistic spectrum conditions by improving the provision of relevant services by local authorities and the national health service. With the strategy’s external reference group chaired by the chief executive of the National Autistic Society, we have identified the priority headings for an adult autism strategy. They are health; social inclusion, including employment; choice and control; and training.

Under the heading of health, we shall identify the barriers to accessing specialist health interventions and mainstream health care services and shall propose action and a strategy to address that. That will be informed by the report of the study currently being taken forward by the National Audit Office, which we expect to see shortly. Secondly, under the heading of social inclusion, the strategy will address issues of employment for people with autism.

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