Asked by: Martin Docherty-Hughes (Scottish National Party - West Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the Gypsy and Traveller community can access (a) PrEP, (b) HIV testing and (c) HIV care.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The Public Health Grant in 2021/22 includes £23.4 million to cover local authority costs of the routine commissioning of HIV prevention drug pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). The Department and Public Health England (PHE) will continue to work closely with local authorities across England to support the routine commissioning of PrEP in 2021/22.
PHE is currently developing a monitoring and evaluation framework for the routine commissioning of PrEP, which will use established surveillance systems and include measures of PrEP need and use among key population groups to inform equitable delivery and access. We will consider issues relating to equitable access to sexual and reproductive health services including HIV services and PrEP as part of the development of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy and the HIV Action Plan, which we plan to publish in 2021. The needs of the Gypsy and Traveller communities will be considered as part of this work.