Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. The Bill was referred to the health committee for Stage 1 scrutiny. As part of this, we took a wide range of evidence. In addition to the usual formal evidence gathering carried out in committee meetings, we consulted people with autism spectrum disorder and their families in a series of workshops run by the Assembly’s outreach team over the summer. Committee members also met with parent representatives and visited Autism Spectrum Connections Cymru, a one-stop shop providing a safe place for adults with an autism spectrum condition to access a wide range of advice and support, to talk to service users. I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this work.

Now, autism is a lifelong condition like no other. We have talked to people with ASD and their families who are struggling, who say that they have waited 10 years for the autism strategies to deliver the support that they need and it has not happened. The committee understands the rationale of the Member in charge in introducing this Bill. We agree wholeheartedly with the need for improvements in provision of services for people with ASD. We have listened to people with ASD and their families and we’re convinced that further action, much more action, is required in this area, particularly in terms of access to support services. The current difficulties people with ASD and their families regularly face in attempting to access support is unacceptable and must be addressed. The message that clearly came through in the evidence was that more support services are urgently needed for people with ASD.

One area of particular concern was service provision for people with ASD with a high IQ and without a learning disability or mental health condition who seem to fall through the gap. The Welsh Government told us that it has all the powers it needs to deliver improvement to autism services in current legislation in the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act, the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act and the NHS (Wales) Act 2006. However, parents who took part in our focus groups told us that the social services legislation had failed to deliver improved outcomes for their children because the assessments are not appropriate for people with ASD and they're therefore often wrongly denied care and support.