Asked by: Lord Fowler (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the reduction in resources provided by the Government and voluntary sector to tackle HIV and AIDS domestically since the beginning of the year.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to ending HIV transmissions within England by 2030 and is developing the new HIV Action Plan, which we aim to publish this year.
There has been no reduction in resources provided by the Government to address HIV domestically since the beginning of the year.
In 2025/2026, the Government has increased funding through the ringfenced Public Health Grant, and the 100% retained business rate arrangement for local authorities in Greater Manchester, to £3.858 billion. This represents a significant turning point for local health services, marking the biggest real-terms increase after nearly a decade of reduced spending.
£27 million of additional funding was confirmed for 2025/26 to expand and continue the highly successful National Health Service emergency department opt-out HIV testing programme until March 2026, which has helped to identify more than 1,500 untreated or undiagnosed HIV cases in its first 36 months.
Furthermore, HIV Prevention England, which is the national HIV prevention programme for England funded by the Department and delivered by the Terrence Higgins Trust, has been extended for a year until March 2026, and is backed by £1.5 million of additional funding.
The Government has not estimated the HIV/AIDS resources provided by the voluntary sector.