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<p>The MoJ does not centrally hold specific information on the number of prisoners
who are on the autistic spectrum, either within prisons or young offender’s institutions.
The most recent, available data from the Department for Education (2014/15) shows
that 0.25% of Offender Learners (defined as offenders aged 18 or over that participated
in Skills Funding Agency funded learning while in the prison system) self-declared
as having a learning difficulty classified within the Autistic Spectrum Disorder category.
This represents 250 out of 101,600 learners. This data is not, however, separated
out by gender.</p><p> </p><p>The MoJ is committed to ensuring that all individuals
who come into contact with the prison system are able to access the right support
to help them engage with their sentence. We are therefore taking a number of steps
to improve data collection on disability within prisons.</p><p> </p><p>This includes
work by HM Prisons and Probation Service looking at how disabilities data can be better
categorised on the Prison National Offender Management System (P-NOMIS) for offenders
aged 18 and over to improve staff awareness.</p><p>Health and justice partners are
also working to establish the new Health and Justice Information Service (HJIS) to
improve the link between prisons and community by introducing a system of sharing
clinical records between community and prison on reception, and from prison back to
the community on release.</p><p> </p><p>Finally, the new adult prison education framework
contracts, which commenced on 1 April, have introduced numerous improvements to the
way prisoners aged 18 and over with learning difficulties and disabilities (LDD) are
screened and provided with regular and consistent support throughout their sentence.</p>
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