Publication, Part of Health and Care of People with Learning Disabilities
Health and Care of People with Learning Disabilities Experimental Statistics 2020 to 2021
Experimental statistics, Other reports and statistics, Official statistics in development
Data Quality Notice
NHS England had identified an issue with the data for the following indicator which was reported in the Interactive Visualisation Tool and the data csv file for this publication:
LDOB080 - Number of patients recorded on their general practice’s Learning Disabilities Register aged 14 years or over who have received an annual learning disability health check and have been provided with a health action plan, as at the end of the reporting period.
The proportion of people on the learning disability register with a heath check and health action plan was lower than expected. We have investigated the issue and found an error in the data extraction. We have therefore removed LDOB080 from the published Power BI and csv files for years 2019-20 through to 2024-25. An alternative source of this data is available for this indicator and we recommend that you refer to the Learning Disability Health Check Scheme publication for March 2021: Learning Disabilities Health Check Scheme - NHS England Digital
13 May 2026 16:42 PM
Autism
The percentage of patients with a learning disability who have also been diagnosed with autism increased steadily from 19.8% in 2016-17 to 28.6% in 2020-21, a rise of 8.8 percentage points. Diagnoses of autism in patients without a learning disability rose by 0.3 percentage points (0.5% in 2016-17 to 0.8% in 2020-21) over the same period.
In 2016-17 patients with a learning disability were 26 times more likely to be diagnosed with autism than those without a learning disability. This fell to 22 times more likely in 2020-21.
Autism and prescribing
These are new indicators introduced in 2020-21 which show that statistically significant numbers of patients with a learning disability who have been diagnosed with autism are prescribed antipsychotics, benzodiazepines and epilepsy drugs compared to patients who have autism but do not have a learning disability.
Patients who have been diagnosed with autism were
- 66 times more likely to be prescribed antipsychotics if they had a learning disability than those without a learning disability
- 66 times more likely to be prescribed benzodiazepines if they had a learning disability than those without a learning disability
Patients who have been diagnosed with autism and had an active diagnosis of epilepsy were
- 80 times more likely to be prescribed epilepsy drugs if they had a learning disability than those without a learning disability
Last edited: 13 May 2026 4:42 pm