Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to ensure that the HIV Action plan includes steps to (a) monitor (b) evaluate and (c) benchmark health-related quality of life, using measurements developed in collaboration with people who have HIV.

The HIV Action Plan monitoring and evaluation framework was published on 1st December 2022 and is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hiv-monitoring-and-evaluation-framework/hiv-action-plan-monitoring-and-evaluation-framework

This measures the progress towards the aims of the HIV Action Plan to reduce human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) transmissions and deaths by 2025. The priority is to promote the quality of life of people living with HIV and to reduce stigma. Reducing stigma and promoting quality of life are key themes in the monitoring and evaluation framework. A baseline indicator, taken from the Positive Voices Survey for a quality of life measure was presented in the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework as 7.4 out of 10 for people living with HIV, compared to 7.7 out of 10 in the general population.

The framework will continue to monitor and evaluate the quality of life measure from this baseline. The framework states that further work will be undertaken with the HIV Action Plan Implementation Steering Group and with professional groups, the HIV community and academic partners to develop indicators to monitor quality of life for those living with HIV. It is anticipated that these indicators will be aligned with UNAIDS’ 2025 AIDS Targets, which include an assessment of punitive laws and policies and targets of less than 10% of people living with HIV experiencing stigma and discrimination and less than 10% experiencing gender inequality and violence.

The monitoring and evaluation framework was published in December 2022 and included a place holder indicator of quality of life using the positive voices survey. The framework sets out a commitment to further develop this indicator to monitor the quality of life with key stakeholders including the HIV community. The HIV community advisory group feeds directly into the HIV Action plan Steering group and will enable future indicators to be co-produced.