Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the policy paper entitled Towards zero - an action plan towards ending HIV transmission, AIDS and HIV-related deaths in England - 2022 to 2025, published on 21 December 2021, for what reasons there were 4,600 people living with HIV who were attending NHS care but had missing evidence of viral suppression in 2019.

Data from the 2019 archive shows there were 98,552 people living with diagnosed HIV infection. Of these, 98% were virally suppressed or undetectable. These individuals cannot pass on HIV through sex even if not using condoms or pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

The 4,600 people for whom viral load was not reported to the HIV and AIDS Reporting System (HARS) for at least two consecutive years represents 4.7% of patients. One such reason why viral load is not reported is that in some outpatient services, the flow of laboratory data, such as viral load results, is not automated. Although this can be updated at the time of submission to the HARS, this does not always occur. While a patient may also have attended a clinic appointment, a blood sample may not have been taken.