UK actively considering autistic military recruits, defence minister says

People with autism could be recruited to the military to aid the UK's response to cyber threats, according to a defence minister.

Leo Docherty told MPs the Government is "actively considering" the proposal after he was challenged in the House of Commons.

Liberal Democrat MP Jamie Stone raised the case of a Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross constituent who was "keen as mustard" to join the Armed Forces but had been diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum.

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MPs heard the young man "fell at the first hurdle" and was rejected despite Mr Stone's efforts to lobby ministers.

Mr Docherty replied: "We are actively considering recruiting people with neurodiversity because of their capacity for working in the cyber-sphere, so I'm very pleased he raised it and I can confirm we're actively looking at that."

In March 2019, Conservative MP Anne-Marie Trevelyan – now the Trade Secretary – used a Commons debate to warn that Britain's military was losing the opportunity to hire "brilliant minds" due to moves to stop people who are autistic from applying to join.

Ms Trevelyan said at the time: "I'm trying really hard to let the MOD let me do some work with them to look at why it is that autistic spectrum disorder is an automatic disbarment at the moment from participating in application to the military in the United Kingdom.

"This is a fundamental failure on our part to identify – there are many senior members of our military who are clearly on the autistic spectrum, and who are very, very brilliant leaders in their field," she added.