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In the coming months, a debate about the report in the House of Lords is expected. In the debate, members of the Lords can question a Government minister about the response. Post to be published here when the debate is announced.
Screenshot of the Government's response to the recommendations made by the House of Lords Committee on Autism Act 2009
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… We will draw on the totality of evidence and, where needed, engage with stakeholders and people with lived experience to build on the committee’s suggestions."
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The Government response says:
"We welcome the large amount of evidence gathered by the committee as well as the work it has done to ensure that autistic people, and those that support them, were able to participate in the development of its report...
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Today on 23 January, the Government published its response to the Committee's report which can be read via the link below. www.gov.uk/government/p...
We completed our work as of report publication on 23 November, and the Committee has formally ceased to exist. This means the Committee will not have any more meetings and can’t do any follow-up work.
HM Government must publish a written response to our report. This is meant to happen within 2 months. The response is to be published on the Committee’s parliamentary website. Afterwards, the Chair is expected to lead a debate on the report in the House of Lords.
Our report out 23 November calls on HM Government
to deliver an effective new autism strategy. Open this link committees.parliament.uk/committee/77... to view the:
- Full report
- Easy Read report (including accessible version)
- Report summary, conclusions and recommendations
- Shorthand story
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Watch the message from our Chair below ⬇️ on the report
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqjl...
🚨 ♾ Our report out yesterday calls on HM Government to deliver an effective new autism strategy. Open this link committees.parliament.uk/committee/77... to view the following:
- Full report
- Easy Read report
- Report summary with conclusions and recommendations
- Shorthand
REMINDER: Our report shall be published on Sunday 23 November. From this date, open this link committees.parliament.uk/committee/77... to access the following:
- Full report
- Report summary with the list of conclusions and recommendations
- Shorthand (shorter summary of our report's key points)
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Now that our report has been agreed, the Committee’s work has finished.
Find out more about the Committee and our inquiry here:
committees.parliament.uk/committee/77...
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In our inquiry, we examined how well the Autism Act and government autism strategies have been working. We spoke to dozens of autistic people and their allies from from this country and took written evidence from hundreds more.
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The UK Government must publish a response to our recommendations. This is meant to happen within 2 months. Their response should be published on the Committee's Parliamentary website.
Following the above, there will hopefully be a debate about the Committee’s report in the House of Lords.
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Our report makes recommendations about what the Government next needs to do to deliver for autistic people. The Government has committed to use our recommendations to inform the new autism strategy for launch in 2026.
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We have recently agreed our report on the Autism Act 2009. The report shall be published on Sunday 23 November.
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You can watch the full evidence session here:
parliamentlive.tv/event/index/...
You can read the full transcript here:
committees.parliament.uk/event/23470/...
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"Just because someone is diagnosed—newly or otherwise—does not mean that they will know what support they will need. I am someone who had support in school and university. Translating that experience into what I needed in employment was tricky. It is the same for other autistic people."
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This week, we continue to look back on the evidence we heard in the spring.
In March, we heard from Leo Capella, Training Consultant (Employment Specialist) at The National Autistic Society. He revealed the following to us... (continue onto next post).
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The transcript 📜 of our committee's 17 March evidence session can be read via the link here: committees.parliament.uk/event/23470/...
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To hear 👂 more of what Marsha and her fellow witnesses expressed to our committee, watch the entire 17 March evidence session on-demand ⏯️ here: parliamentlive.tv/event/index/... .
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On 17 March 2025, we heard from Marsha Martin, founder of Black SEN Mamas.
Marsha warned us: ‘’Without access to proper care, black autistic people are left to navigate life with untreated conditions, worsening health and a poor quality of life overall.’’
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In March, we heard from Zaynab (Zeze) Sohawon, founder of Emotion Dysregulation in Autism.
Zeze told us: "I racked up just over £1 million for my NHS trust to spend on me being in a mental health unit that was not actually helping me very much"
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In the coming weeks, the Committee shall consider and agree its final report.
During this period, we shall be looking back at the valuable evidence we heard in the spring and summer from autistic people and their supporters. We plan to post some clips from the evidence we heard here.
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The written evidence we've received should be carefully considered and used to help inform the Committee’s report.
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We received over 360 submissions to our inquiry from people and organisations, including:
⭐ autistic individuals, family members and carers
⭐ professionals who work with autistic people
⭐ charities and support services
⭐ academics
⭐ local authorities and NHS bodies.
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We’ve published the written evidence we received for our inquiry. These submissions can be found via the link here:
lnkd.in/euSNk6b3 .
Thank you to everyone who submitted their own evidence or helped others to contribute.
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• a visit to Care Trade's employment scheme for autistic people at St Thomas' Hospital in Lambeth
• a visit to Phoenix School, a special school for autistic children and young people in Tower Hamlets
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• meetings with experts by experience and NHS and local authority professionals to discuss co-production and how to improve services for autistic people (facilitated by @NDTi)
