Autism Alliance provides evidence to House of Lords Inquiry

The Autism Alliance UK has been supporting the House of Lords Special Inquiry Committee on the Autism Act 2009.

The Autism Act 2009 was a landmark piece of legislation for England. It requires the Government to have a national autism strategy, to produce statutory guidance for local bodies, and to keep all this updated. The Autism Act 2009 influenced legislation and autism strategies in other parts of the UK.

Since the Act, there have been three Government autism strategies in England, and related programmes like Transforming Care - but data shows that autistic people’s outcomes have not improved in the ways intended. This was the subject of the Autism Alliance UK’s reports Real Change and Doing the Right Thing.

The House of Lords Special Inquiry Committee has been established to understand how well the Autism Act, the Government’s autism strategy and the statutory guidance are working so that it can make specific, practical recommendations about what the Government should do next.

Given the lack of progress in improving autistic people’s lives, it is a vitally important piece of work.

During its evidence-gathering phase, the Committee has heard from almost 70 witnesses and received evidence from around 400 individuals and organisations. The Committee has also engaged directly with autistic people and their families.

The Director of the Autism Alliance gave evidence at the first session on 10th March 2025, and at the final session on 7th July 2025. We have also submitted written evidence to the Committee, and this can be found here.

The Committee is due to publish its report by the end of November 2025, following which the Government will make its response.