Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure consistent implementation of opt-out HIV testing for all prisoners upon entry to prison and throughout their sentence, and how uptake is monitored across prison estates.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The new HIV Action Plan, published on World AIDS Day on 1 December 2025, sets out how the Government will enable every level of the healthcare system to work together to engage everyone in prevention, testing and treatment, tackling stigma, and reaching our ambition to end new HIV transmissions by 2030. This includes a dedicated action to deliver tailored and targeted HIV prevention, treatment, and care services to meet the needs of local populations and address inequalities, including the challenges of HIV testing in prisons.

HIV testing on entry into prison is part of a national programme of opt-out blood borne virus (BBV) testing which tests people for hepatitis C, hepatitis B, and HIV. Sexual health services in prisons are commissioned by NHS England under the Section 7a Public Health Functions Agreement with the Department. This sets out targets for this opt-out BBV testing programme, with an efficiency target of 50% testing uptake, and an optimal performance standard of 75% testing uptake.

While uptake of a BBV test has risen from 11% in 2016/17 to 72% overall in 2022/23, this is below the 75% target and there is variation by region and prison. To inform future progress we are supporting regional partners to complete and review the BBV and sexually transmitted infections prisons audit to understand provision of HIV prevention and care in prisons from primary care and sexual health services.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to publish annual data about HIV prevalence, testing uptake and treatment adherence in prisoners, disaggregated by gender and security category.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) publishes overall HIV prevalence and HIV testing data annually in the HIV Monitoring and Evaluation Framework and the HIV Official Statistics, available on the GOV.UK website.

Our recently published 2025 report Understanding HIV testing contains further information on people in prison. The report is also available on the GOV.UK website.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to guarantee uninterrupted access to antiretroviral therapy for prisoners living with HIV, particularly during transfers between facilities and upon release.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The new HIV Action Plan, published on World AIDS Day on 1 December 2025, sets out how the Government will enable every level of the healthcare system to work together to engage everyone in prevention, testing and treatment, tackling stigma, and reaching our ambition to end new HIV transmissions by 2030. This includes a dedicated action to deliver tailored and targeted HIV prevention, treatment, and care services to meet the needs of local populations and address inequalities, including the challenges of HIV prevention and care in prisoners.

People entering prison receive healthcare assessments on reception which identify current healthcare needs and treatment. This includes identifying people who are receiving treatment for HIV. The healthcare team will use processes for accessing critical medicines to arrange an urgent supply of HIV medicines from the specialist clinic if required. The healthcare team will then ensure a referral to the local HIV specialist team if the patient is in a prison in a location which lies outside of the area coveted by their current specialist. HIV services have clear processes used to promptly transfer care between specialists.

No data is available on HIV treatment attendance for people in prison or on probation. However, engagement work has reported gaps in care, including treatment interruptions. To address this, regional and local partners are being asked to complete and review the blood borne virus and sexually transmitted infections prisons audit to understand provision of HIV prevention and care in prisons from primary care and sexual health services, which will inform future action.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what policies are in place to provide prisoners with HIV prevention methods, such as condoms, pre-exposure prophylaxis and post-exposure prophylaxis, and what steps they take to ensure equitable access for women and other vulnerable groups.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The new HIV Action Plan, published on World AIDS Day on 1 December 2025, sets out how the Government will enable every level of the healthcare system to work together to engage everyone in prevention, testing, and treatment, tackling stigma, and reaching our ambition to end new HIV transmissions by 2030. This includes a dedicated action to deliver tailored and targeted HIV prevention, treatment, and care services to meet the needs of local populations and address inequalities, including the challenges of HIV prevention and care in prisoners.

NHS England Health and Justice commissioned services are required to deliver care and ensure access in accordance with the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV’s prison standards, helping to ensure that all individuals in custody, including women and other vulnerable groups, receive equitable healthcare comparable to that available in the community. Access to HIV PrEP in England is via commissioned level 3 sexual health services. These are commissioned by local authorities for people in the community. NHS England Health and Justice commissioners arrange for these providers to enable access for detained people via referral for assessment. The service is accessed by the detained person via in-reach, where the sexual health team come on-site, or out-reach, where the individual goes out to clinic, provision. The service provided to individuals by the level 3 sexual health team is on the same basis provided to people in the community using the same commissioning policy. HIV post exposure prophylaxis is accessed by prisoners in the same way as people in the community. They attend accident and emergency or access a Sexual Assault Referral Centre based on locally commissioned arrangements.

To inform future action we are supporting regional partners to complete and review the blood borne virus and sexually transmitted infections prisons audit to understand the provision of HIV prevention and care in prisons from primary care and sexual health services.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how the HIV Action Plan for England, 2025 to 2030, published on 1 December, will specifically address the challenges of HIV prevention and care in prisoners, and what funding has been allocated to support those initiatives.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The new HIV Action Plan, published on World AIDS Day on 1 December 2025, sets out how the Government will enable every level of the healthcare system to work together to engage everyone in prevention, testing and treatment, tackling stigma, and reaching our ambition to end new HIV transmissions by 2030. This includes a dedicated action to deliver tailored and targeted HIV prevention, treatment, and care services to meet the needs of local populations and address inequalities, including the challenges of HIV prevention and care in prisoners.

NHS England Health and Justice commissioned services are required to deliver care and ensure access in accordance with the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV’s prison standards, helping to ensure that individuals in custody receive equitable healthcare comparable to that available in the community. NHS England Health and Justice regional commissioners ensure the level 3 sexual health services for detained people includes the HIV PrEP access pathway, and that prison healthcare teams and prisoners know how to access it. Prisoners with HIV should be seen for HIV care at least once a year. However, no data is available on HIV treatment attendance for people in prison or on probation. To address this, we are supporting regional partners to complete and review the blood borne virus and sexually transmitted infections prisons audit to understand the provision of HIV prevention and care in prisons from primary care and sexual health services, to inform future action.