A group of Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs has formally requested that Samantha Jones, the permanent secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care, recuse herself from upcoming government efforts to regulate private ADHD and autism clinics. The call for her withdrawal stems from concerns regarding her previous professional associations with a company that provides neurodiversity assessments to the NHS.

According to the MPs, this company has received approximately £26 million in funding from the health service. The critics argue that because of this financial relationship, Jones’s involvement in the proposed crackdown on the private market could present a conflict of interest. The government is currently looking to tighten oversight of the sector, which has seen a significant increase in the number of private assessments being conducted for neurodivergent conditions.

While the MPs have publicly voiced their concerns regarding the potential for bias in the regulatory process, there has been no immediate response from Jones or the Department of Health and Social Care regarding whether she will step down from these specific duties. The debate highlights the tension between the government's desire to regulate a rapidly expanding private healthcare market and the necessity of maintaining public trust in the impartiality of the officials overseeing those changes.