A Suffolk MP has slammed the “silent scandal” of inequalities within the SEND diagnosis system.

Matt Hancock, former Health Secretary and MP for West Suffolk, has said that children from wealthier families are able to afford the cost of being diagnosed with a learning difficulty.

Speaking in a parliamentary debate on SEND provision and funding, the MP said that the fee for being diagnosed, which can be as much as £600, creates an “unjust allocation” of diagnosis within the system, that sees children from wealthier families better off than those who can’t afford to pay for a diagnosis.

He said: “Here there is a bigger social injustice, and it needs to be named and then it needs to be dealt with, and that is that there is a silent scandal of access to diagnosis.

“Now I come at this from the point of view of dyslexia. I am dyslexic and it is the area I am most expert in.”

The MP, who was diagnosed with dyslexia after he left school, quoted a London School of Economics report, published in November last year, that found that 15% of children with specific learning difficulties are in the most affluent decile and 6% are in the most deprived.

He added: “This cannot reflect reality. It is simply not true that 15% of those in the most affluent decile might have specific learning difficulties and only 6% in the most deprived.

“The truth is that in the most affluent decile there are parents who can pay the £600 for diagnosis outside of the state system and there are more parents who are articulate and able to fight, go to their MP, go to the council, and make the case.

 “I believe in universal education because it underpins universal equality of opportunity in this country.”

Hancock says he set up the Accessible Learning Foundation to improve early identification.