The Department must appoint a person as the autism reviewer.

The autism reviewer must not be a person employed by the Department or a Northern Ireland department.

The autism reviewer is not subject to the direction or control of the Department or the Northern Ireland departments.

But this is subject to the requirement under this section for the Department to pay the autism reviewer’s expenses and allowances.

The reviewer must issue a report annually on the exercise of their functions, and may issue additional reports.

The reviewer must send any report to the Department.

On receiving the report, the Department must lay it before the Assembly.

The Department must pay the reviewer expenses and allowances which are reasonably necessary in order to allow the reviewer to carry out their functions.