Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the statement from the Chief Executive of Public Health England that the number of cases of tuberculosis in Britain will soon exceed the number in the US for the first time; and what steps he is taking to tackle the increasingly antibiotic-resistant form of tuberculosis.

Public Health England and NHS England will jointly launch the Collaborative TB Strategy for England 2015-2020 having consulted on the draft earlier this year. The strategy sets out the best practice in clinical care, social support and public health to strengthen TB control. The strategy also focuses on building on existing successful initiatives in the NHS and public health system to reduce drug-resistant TB incidence by improving access to rapid diagnostic tests, dealing with the clinical and social risk factors associated with development of drug resistance, ensuring patient compliance with treatment by providing case management support, including the flexible delivery of care.