Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Public Health England’s 2019 report Shooting Up: Infections among people who inject drugs in the UK, what steps he is taking to implement its recommendation on reducing the number of new hepatitis C infections through improved harm reduction approaches.
Local authorities are responsible for assessing local drug needs and commissioning prevention, treatment and harm reduction services and interventions, which include needle exchange provision.
NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with PHE to review the harm reduction activity that is currently available.