Autism strategy and the Scottish Criminal Justice system: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/17/02139
Date received: 8 September 2017
Date responded: 5 October 2017

Information requested

You asked for information contained within any submissions made to the Scottish Government by a the National Autistic Society, Scottish Autism, The Scottish Human Rights Commission and/or any other bodies by Scottish Autism in order to facilitate this and other improvements for individuals with Autism in the Scottish Criminal Justice system.

Response

The answer to your question is that the Scottish Government has not received submissions by individuals and bodies including the National Autistic Society, Scottish Autism, the Scottish Human Rights Commission and/ bodies by Scottish Autism in order to facilitate this and other improvements for individuals with Autism in the Scottish Criminal Justice system. In preparation for the refreshed outcomes approach of the Scottish Strategy for Autism the National Autistic Society were asked their thoughts on a potential line in the future document, namely that the Scottish Government would;

• Consult with Education Scotland, Health Improvement Scotland, the Care Inspectorate and the Criminal Justice System on improvement programmes to improve how autistic people in Scotland are met within services across all aspects of their lives.

The National Autistic Society's response to this was;

• "It is our view that the Criminal Justice System is failing autistic people and that this must be urgently addressed. We would therefore argue that while a consultation would be a promising first step, a stronger commitment from the government on this issue is required. More information on what these improvement programmes would look like would be helpful; for example will they involve updating the curricula for new professionals, or the implementation of new continual professional development?"

About FOI

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