Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have (1) to encourage, (2) to support, and (3) to enforce, the use of antibiotic consumption data as a public health measure in decisions about (a) trade policy, and (b) the protection of public health.

Public health issues are being actively considered as part of the Government’s trade policy development. The Government has been clear that it will uphold the United Kingdom’s high levels of public, animal, and plant health.

The UK’s five-year national action plan for antimicrobial resistance includes ambitions to reduce antimicrobial use in human and animal medicine. Public Health England (PHE) works with the National Health Service to develop and maintain robust surveillance systems for monitoring and reporting trends in antimicrobial use. Local data on antibiotic prescribing is published by PHE in an online only format and can be used by healthcare staff, commissioners and directors of public health to benchmark performance and develop local action plans.