Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the laboratory capacity required to meet anticipated levels of HIV screening during the HIV Action Plan for England 2025–2030 period.

As part of the new HIV Action Plan, we will continue the success of the blood-borne virus emergency department opt-out testing programme, investing £156 million from April 2026 to March 2029 to deliver opt-out HIV, Hepatitis B, and Hepatitis C testing in emergency departments in very high and high HIV prevalence areas.

We will also expand digital provision of HIV testing, investing £5 million in 2025/26 to trial HIV testing through the NHS App, working in partnership with existing commissioned sexual health providers, such as those already used by local authorities, rather than building a new service from scratch. These services have a strong track record in at-home HIV testing, and the NHS App will provide a new entry point that routes people into that established service.

National Health Service trusts are responsible for ensuring laboratories have adequate capacity for all testing, including HIV screening.