Asked by: Steve Brine (Conservative - Winchester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to her Department's publication entitled Towards Zero - An action plan towards ending HIV transmission, AIDS and HIV-related deaths in England - 2022 to 2025, updated on 21 December 2021, what recent progress has been made on (a) reviewing existing late diagnosis protocols and (b) strengthening the protocols prior to a national roll out.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
A late HIV diagnoses steering group will be held in the second quarter of 2024 to review and agree the content of the protocol. Software is also under development to enable information to be captured.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to expand provision of HIV peer support in all areas of England.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The HIV Action Plan is the cornerstone of our approach in England to drive forward progress and achieve our goal to end new HIV transmissions, AIDS- and HIV-related deaths within England by 2030. It includes a key objective to improve the quality of life for people living with HIV, including through peer support.
The Department is working with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to share emerging evidence on the effectiveness of voluntary sector-led peer support networks for local commissioners to develop similar models. The forthcoming UKHSA publication of the results of the Positive Voices survey will include data on the experiences of people living with HIV and inform our work to improve the provision of HIV services, including peer support.
A subgroup of the HIV Action Plan implementation Steering Group, providing advice on increasing the number of people retained and re-engaged in care and receiving effective medical care, is also considering the role of peer support services in achieving these outcomes.
Asked by: Baroness Northover (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, ahead of the 30-year review of the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action, what progress they have made since 1994 on sexual and reproductive health and rights in the UK.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are proud of the United Kingdom’s progress regarding sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in the last thirty years and of our country’s leadership as the top performing country in SRHR policies according to the European Combined SRHR Ranking Atlas 2020-2023.
In Great Britain, women have access to safe, regulated National Health Service-funded termination of pregnancy services under the Abortion Act 1967. Abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland through the introduction of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc.) Act 2019. Health is devolved in the UK, and progress on SRHR in England has included several areas of SRHR.
Contraception plays a vital role in preventing unintended pregnancy and a wide range of contraceptive choices are available free of charge in a range of primary and community care venues in England, including through the NHS Pharmacy Contraception Service since April 2023. The conception rate amongst women under 18 years old in England is now lower than it was twenty years ago and has more than halved between 2011 and 2021. The conception rate for those aged under 16 years old is approximately a third of what it was 10 years ago.
The 2022 Women’s Health Strategy for England sets out our plans for boosting the health and wellbeing of women and girls, and for improving how the health and care system engages and listens to all women. This includes investing £25 million in women’s health hubs to improve women’s access to essential services for menstrual problems, contraception, menopause care and more.
Local authorities in England are responsible for commissioning comprehensive open access to most sexual health services (SHSs) through the public health grant funded at £3.5 billion in 2023/24. Individual local authorities are well placed to make funding and commissioning decisions about the SHSs that best meet the needs of their local populations. This includes oral HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, which has been routinely available in specialist SHSs since 2020.
The National Chlamydia Screening Programme focuses on reducing reproductive harm of untreated infection in young women aged 15 to 24 years old. The programme has the secondary aims of reducing re-infections and onward transmission of chlamydia and raising awareness of good sexual health.
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a very common sexually transmitted infection, and some types can cause genital warts or cervical cancer. The national HPV vaccination programme was introduced for girls in September 2008 and extended to eligible boys in September 2019. In 2022, genital warts diagnoses among young women aged between 15 and 17 years old attending SHSs were 67.9% lower than in 2018.
The HIV Action Plan is the cornerstone of our approach in England to drive forward progress and achieve our goal to end new HIV transmissions, AIDS and HIV-related deaths within England by 2030 backed by almost £45m over 2020-2025. We continue to celebrate the progress made from 2019 when the Government first made its HIV commitments, with approximately 4,500 people living with undiagnosed HIV and extremely high levels of antiretroviral therapy coverage and viral suppression.
Asked by: Baroness Barker (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to facilitate international knowledge exchange and collaboration to accelerate progress towards the global goals of ending new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths by 2030.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK remains a world leader in efforts to end the global AIDS epidemic and funds all key partners in the global AIDS response, including the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria.
The UK's investments, including to the WHO, help to ensure that people at high risk of HIV in the global south can access Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis and other HIV prevention and treatment services. WHO has recently published new guidelines on HIV, STI and viral hepatitis prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care for key populations, which will support countries and local organisations in designing and implementing their HIV strategies and interventions.
Our recent pledge of £1 billion to the Global Fund will save over 1 million lives, including by providing antiretroviral therapy for 1.8 million people, HIV counselling and testing for 48 million people, and reaching 3 million members of key affected populations with prevention programs.
Our funding for the Robert Carr Fund and UNAIDS supports initiatives to empower local civil society and grassroots organisations, predominantly in the Global South, to increase access to HIV prevention, testing and care services, particularly for LGBT+ people.
Asked by: Baroness Barker (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support community-led efforts in other countries that focus on HIV prevention, awareness, and support for key affected populations, such as sex workers, LGBTQ+ communities, and people who use drugs.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK remains a world leader in efforts to end the global AIDS epidemic and funds all key partners in the global AIDS response, including the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria.
The UK's investments, including to the WHO, help to ensure that people at high risk of HIV in the global south can access Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis and other HIV prevention and treatment services. WHO has recently published new guidelines on HIV, STI and viral hepatitis prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care for key populations, which will support countries and local organisations in designing and implementing their HIV strategies and interventions.
Our recent pledge of £1 billion to the Global Fund will save over 1 million lives, including by providing antiretroviral therapy for 1.8 million people, HIV counselling and testing for 48 million people, and reaching 3 million members of key affected populations with prevention programs.
Our funding for the Robert Carr Fund and UNAIDS supports initiatives to empower local civil society and grassroots organisations, predominantly in the Global South, to increase access to HIV prevention, testing and care services, particularly for LGBT+ people.
Asked by: Baroness Barker (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address the underlying factors that contribute to higher HIV transmission rates among marginalised groups of women, such as sex workers, transgender women, and immigrants.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We remain committed to improving sexual and reproductive health in England, including for women from all groups.
The HIV Action Plan is the cornerstone of our approach in England to drive forward progress and achieve our goal to end new HIV transmissions, AIDS and HIV-related deaths within England by 2030. A key principle of our approach is to ensure that all populations benefit equally from improvements made in HIV outcomes, including women.
As part of the HIV Action Plan, the Department is investing over £3.5 million from 2021-2024 to deliver the National HIV Prevention Programme, a nationally co-ordinated programme of HIV prevention work that is designed to complement locally commissioned prevention activities in areas of high HIV prevalence and for communities at risk of HIV transmission, with a particular focus on black African women. HIV Prevention England (HPE) aims to improve knowledge and understanding of HIV transmission and reduce stigma within affected communities through the delivery of public campaigns such as National HIV Testing Week, and evidence-based HIV prevention interventions in partnership with local organisations and charities, including women-led organisations.
HPE works with a wide range of models and their network of influencers. As part of HPE campaigns, a range of people share their stories and experiences on HIV, STIs and sexual health this includes women and other people who are likely to be recognisable to specific demographics.
Since 2013, the Government has mandated local authorities in England to commission comprehensive open access to most sexual health services, including free and confidential HIV testing, and provision of the HIV prevention drug PrEP through the Public Health Grant, funded at £3.4 billion overall in 2022/23. It is for individual local authorities to decide their spending priorities based on an assessment of local need and to commission the service lines that best suit their population.
In 2022, we published the Women’s Health Strategy for England setting out our 10-year ambitions and actions to improve health for women and girls.
Asked by: Baroness Barker (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that women have control over their sexual and reproductive health decisions, and are empowered to negotiate condom use, access PrEP, and make informed choices to prevent HIV transmission.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We remain committed to improving sexual and reproductive health in England, including for women from all groups.
The HIV Action Plan is the cornerstone of our approach in England to drive forward progress and achieve our goal to end new HIV transmissions, AIDS and HIV-related deaths within England by 2030. A key principle of our approach is to ensure that all populations benefit equally from improvements made in HIV outcomes, including women.
As part of the HIV Action Plan, the Department is investing over £3.5 million from 2021-2024 to deliver the National HIV Prevention Programme, a nationally co-ordinated programme of HIV prevention work that is designed to complement locally commissioned prevention activities in areas of high HIV prevalence and for communities at risk of HIV transmission, with a particular focus on black African women. HIV Prevention England (HPE) aims to improve knowledge and understanding of HIV transmission and reduce stigma within affected communities through the delivery of public campaigns such as National HIV Testing Week, and evidence-based HIV prevention interventions in partnership with local organisations and charities, including women-led organisations.
HPE works with a wide range of models and their network of influencers. As part of HPE campaigns, a range of people share their stories and experiences on HIV, STIs and sexual health this includes women and other people who are likely to be recognisable to specific demographics.
Since 2013, the Government has mandated local authorities in England to commission comprehensive open access to most sexual health services, including free and confidential HIV testing, and provision of the HIV prevention drug PrEP through the Public Health Grant, funded at £3.4 billion overall in 2022/23. It is for individual local authorities to decide their spending priorities based on an assessment of local need and to commission the service lines that best suit their population.
In 2022, we published the Women’s Health Strategy for England setting out our 10-year ambitions and actions to improve health for women and girls.
Asked by: Baroness Barker (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to facilitate knowledge exchange and collaboration among countries to accelerate progress toward the global goals of ending new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths by 2030.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The FCDO remains a key funder and political supporter of major multilateral organisations and global health institutions, including WHO, UNITAID, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and others, and engages closely with these partners to promote knowledge exchange and collaboration at every level to accelerate progress on the HIV epidemic. For example, we continue to invest core funding in UNAIDS which remains the global source of authoritative, comprehensive and disaggregated data and information on the global HIV epidemic. We also provide core funding to the WHO, which has recently published new guidelines on HIV, sexually transmitted infections and viral hepatitis prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care for key populations, which will support countries and local organisations in designing and implementing their HIV strategies and interventions.
Asked by: Baroness Barker (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to support community-led efforts in other countries that focus on HIV (1) prevention, (2) awareness, and (3) support for key affected populations, such as sex workers, LGBTQ+ communities, and people who use drugs.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Addressing stigma and discrimination and ensuring equality of access to HIV prevention, testing and treatment services is critical to the global HIV response. Our funding to the Robert Carr Fund and to UNAIDS helps to support legal and policy reform to combat stigma and discrimination and to improve access to HIV services, including prevention, awareness and support services, for key populations, particularly LGBT+ communities. The UK is a champion for human rights. Our £1 billion pledge to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria will support its Strategy which includes focus on addressing inequities and structural drivers of HIV infection and AIDS-related deaths including legal barriers.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an assessment of the potential for legislative changes to help remove stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The HIV Action Plan is the cornerstone of our approach in England to drive forward progress and achieve our goal to end new HIV transmissions, AIDS and HIV-related deaths within England by 2030. It includes a key objective to improve the quality of life for people living with HIV and addressing stigma. In December, UK Health Security Agency will publish a monitoring and evaluation report of the HIV Action Plan for England as well as the results of the Positive Voices 2022 survey which provide granular data and findings on HIV-related stigma and discrimination experienced by people living with HIV in England, Wales and Scotland.
The Government announced on 24 October its intention to change the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 to allow people who are HIV positive, but with an undetectable viral load, to donate their gametes as part of fertility treatment and will continue considering potential changes which can support people living with HIV and improve their quality of life.