LeDeR report republished today after retraction just three months after its long-delayed appearance

Background

For many years, evidence has shown that autistic people and people with a learning disability have reduced life expectancy. In September 2025, minister Stephen Kinnock said, “The latest report shows that on average, people with a learning disability die 19.5 years younger than the general population and are almost twice as likely to die from an avoidable cause of death. This is unacceptable.”

However, these have proven to be empty words, as no action has been taken to address the underlying issues. The Government points to a programme called ‘LeDeR’ as evidence that it is taking action. We have reported extensively* on the limitations and failings of that programme, which was created to learn from deaths of autistic people and people with learning disabilities.

Insufficient reporting of deaths of autistic people

As it stands, anybody can refer a death to LeDeR, and every death referred will be reviewed. That sounds more impressive than it is, because a lack of awareness of LeDeR means that deaths of autistic people without a learning disability have proven highly unlikely to be referred. The number of those deaths reported has been appallingly low in the first two years of their inclusion. As a result, both Kings College London, the authors of the national report, and NHS England, in their discussions with us, caution that the data cannot be considered representative of all autistic people. In other words, we cannot draw meaningful conclusions from the national data.