I have no knowledge of UK training and testing procedures.
In Australia it would be common practice to use the autopilot except where the examiner nominates the need for handflying demonstrations.
While handflying is very important, the pilot has to integrate a range of disciplines in the successful conduct of an IFR flight. Fixating on any one set of tasks is not a good idea... there are many and varied things out there waiting to kill you.
My comments were directed more at routine operations rather than test scenarios.