Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure uninterrupted access to antiretroviral therapy for people living with HIV when they enter, transfer between, or leave prison, including provision of long-acting injectable treatments where appropriate.

The new HIV Action Plan, published on World AIDS Day on 1 December 2025, sets out how the Government will enable every level of the healthcare system to work together to engage everyone in prevention, testing, and treatment, tackling stigma, and reaching our ambition to end new HIV transmissions by 2030. This includes a dedicated action to deliver tailored and targeted HIV prevention, treatment, and care services to meet the needs of local populations and address inequalities, including the challenges of HIV prevention and care in prisoners.

People entering prison receive healthcare assessments on reception which identify current healthcare needs and treatment. This includes identifying people who are receiving treatment for HIV. The healthcare team will use processes for accessing critical medicines to arrange an urgent supply of HIV medicines from the specialist clinic if required. The healthcare team will then ensure a referral to the local HIV specialist team if the patient is in a prison, in a location which lies outside of the area covered by their current specialist. HIV services have clear processes used to promptly transfer care between specialists.

The UK Health Security Agency is working with regional partners to carry out an audit to understand the provision of HIV diagnosis, prevention, and care in English prisons.