Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is planning to take steps to the next HIV Action Plan for England with the principles of the forthcoming Civil Society Covenant.

The Government recognises the importance of the Civil Society Covenant’s four key principles: recognition; partnership; participation; and transparency. These principles will be reflected in the new HIV Action Plan, which we aim to publish this year.

These are already at the core of the new plan, and we are therefore engaging a wide range of system partners in its development, including the voluntary and community sector (VCS), and people with lived experience. In order to recognise our strong and experienced civil society and to ensure that communities and people can be heard, we recently hosted engagement sessions with approximately 60 VCS and external partners to discuss what the next action plan should look like. Professor Kevin Fenton, the Government’s Chief Advisor on HIV, has also hosted a series of engagement workshops with approximately 250 system partners, including the VCS, industry, primary care, and integrated care board colleagues, to inform our plan.

Department officials have also engaged with officials from across the Government to align resources and efforts in relation to the next HIV Action Plan for England, all of which is being considered in the new plan’s development.