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Adults with Learning Disabilities

The hon. Gentleman has cut to the heart of the matter, but I hope he will forgive me for not responding directly to his question. I intend answer it later in my remarks. Access to jobs and work is often unfairly denied to people with learning disabilities. The point was made earlier that we could do more to help in Parliament, and we could certainly do more in government. When I was Minister, I asked the Department of Health to review the options for employing people with learning disabilities, and it identified a couple of posts. My hon. Friend the Minister might like to check whether learning disabled people still hold those posts. We need to be positive. Learning disabled people are also denied access to educational opportunities. A very important section of the report is about the court services and law and order. Hon. Members will know that I have campaigned for a long time on behalf of autistic people, who suffer very badly when it comes to legal services. Policemen often do not recognise the needs of autistic people or people with learning disabilities, and the courts often are not geared up to help them. I recommend that my hon. Friend the Member for Hendon examines the Maryland curriculum from the United States. The state governor had an autistic grandson who got into some trouble with the law and realised that the police in the state did not have the necessary experience and training. He insisted that they went through a new training programme—the Maryland curriculum—and all law officers in the state are thoroughly trained to recognise the needs of autistic people. The curriculum would have to be adapted for use in this country, but as well as being adapted to help law officers when they deal with autistic people, it could be used to train them to recognise the needs of people with learning disabilities. I encourage my hon. Friend to look at whether the curriculum can be used.