Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions she has had with international partners on protecting global HIV funding and increasing progress towards ending AIDS by 2030.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 8 January in response to Question 101723.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of reductions to ODA on access to prevention tools such as long-acting PrEP; and what steps she is taking to (a) ensure equitable global access to those tools and (b) end AIDS.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK remains firmly committed to ending AIDS. We continue to support the organisations at forefront of the global response to HIV, including UNAIDS and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and our investments to Unitaid, CHAI and MedAccess have helped shape the market for new HIV innovations, including Lenacapavir. A formal Equality impact assessment of Official Development Assistance programme allocations for 2025 to 2026 was published on 2 September 2025, and is available on GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fcdo-official-development-assistance-programme-allocations-2025-to-2026-equality-impact-assessment/equality-impact-assessment-of-official-development-assistance-oda-programme-allocations-for-2025-to-2026). Assessments of the impact of future funding allocations will be made in due course once those allocations are set.
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 consistent implementation of opt-out HIV testing for all prisoners upon entry to prison and throughout their sentence, and how uptake is monitored across prison estates.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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 testing in prisons.
HIV testing on entry into prison is part of a national programme of opt-out blood borne virus (BBV) testing which tests people for hepatitis C, hepatitis B, and HIV. Sexual health services in prisons are commissioned by NHS England under the Section 7a Public Health Functions Agreement with the Department. This sets out targets for this opt-out BBV testing programme, with an efficiency target of 50% testing uptake, and an optimal performance standard of 75% testing uptake.
While uptake of a BBV test has risen from 11% in 2016/17 to 72% overall in 2022/23, this is below the 75% target and there is variation by region and prison. To inform future progress we are supporting regional partners to complete and review the BBV and sexually transmitted infections prisons audit to understand provision of HIV prevention and care in prisons from primary care and sexual health services.
Asked by: Lord Cashman (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that people living with HIV in residential social care do not face stigma and discrimination because of their HIV or any associated status, such as being a member of the LGBT+ community.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Everyone has the right to safe, high-quality care, which protects people's health, wellbeing, and human rights, and which enables them to live free from harm, abuse, and neglect. Any form of abuse or neglect is unacceptable, and we are committed to ensuring that we have an effective safeguarding system where risk of harm is identified, acted upon effectively, and ultimately prevented.
Providers are required by law to protect people from abuse and discrimination, including homophobic and transphobic abuse, and the Care Quality Commission will take appropriate enforcement action where they have failed in their duties.
The new HIV Action Plan, published on World AIDS Day, 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 ensure all health and social care staff have the right knowledge on HIV and can tackle stigma and discrimination. This will be achieved at a local, sub-regional, and regional level by embedding HIV education into workforce development programmes, safeguarding training, and induction processes.
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 guarantee uninterrupted access to antiretroviral therapy for prisoners living with HIV, particularly during transfers between facilities and upon release.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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 coveted by their current specialist. HIV services have clear processes used to promptly transfer care between specialists.
No data is available on HIV treatment attendance for people in prison or on probation. However, engagement work has reported gaps in care, including treatment interruptions. To address this, regional and local partners are being asked to complete and review the blood borne virus and sexually transmitted infections prisons audit to understand provision of HIV prevention and care in prisons from primary care and sexual health services, which will inform future action.
Asked by: Baroness Barker (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what policies are in place to provide prisoners with HIV prevention methods, such as condoms, pre-exposure prophylaxis and post-exposure prophylaxis, and what steps they take to ensure equitable access for women and other vulnerable groups.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
NHS England Health and Justice commissioned services are required to deliver care and ensure access in accordance with the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV’s prison standards, helping to ensure that all individuals in custody, including women and other vulnerable groups, receive equitable healthcare comparable to that available in the community. Access to HIV PrEP in England is via commissioned level 3 sexual health services. These are commissioned by local authorities for people in the community. NHS England Health and Justice commissioners arrange for these providers to enable access for detained people via referral for assessment. The service is accessed by the detained person via in-reach, where the sexual health team come on-site, or out-reach, where the individual goes out to clinic, provision. The service provided to individuals by the level 3 sexual health team is on the same basis provided to people in the community using the same commissioning policy. HIV post exposure prophylaxis is accessed by prisoners in the same way as people in the community. They attend accident and emergency or access a Sexual Assault Referral Centre based on locally commissioned arrangements.
To inform future action we are supporting regional partners to complete and review the blood borne virus and sexually transmitted infections prisons audit to understand the provision of HIV prevention and care in prisons from primary care and sexual health services.
Asked by: Baroness Barker (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how the HIV Action Plan for England, 2025 to 2030, published on 1 December, will specifically address the challenges of HIV prevention and care in prisoners, and what funding has been allocated to support those initiatives.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
NHS England Health and Justice commissioned services are required to deliver care and ensure access in accordance with the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV’s prison standards, helping to ensure that individuals in custody receive equitable healthcare comparable to that available in the community. NHS England Health and Justice regional commissioners ensure the level 3 sexual health services for detained people includes the HIV PrEP access pathway, and that prison healthcare teams and prisoners know how to access it. Prisoners with HIV should be seen for HIV care at least once a year. However, no data is available on HIV treatment attendance for people in prison or on probation. To address this, we are supporting regional partners to complete and review the blood borne virus and sexually transmitted infections prisons audit to understand the provision of HIV prevention and care in prisons from primary care and sexual health services, to inform future action.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure the national HIV surveillance system remains compatible with international reporting standards.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and its predecessors have led HIV surveillance since the beginning of the epidemic in the early 1980s. In addition to continued collaboration and acting as expert advisors on HIV surveillance to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) European region, the UKHSA ensures that its data remains compatible by reporting standard data to ECDC/WHO European region and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS on an annual basis.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure the forthcoming HIV Action Plan will strengthen awareness of HIV risk among women.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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, tackle stigma, and reach our ambition to end new HIV transmissions by 2030. This includes a focus on women, as we know from the UK Health Security Agency’s latest data that they are not benefitting equally from the progress made on HIV in recent years.
Women will benefit from all of the actions in the HIV Action Plan, including improved testing and prevention services, rapid treatment, and support for those living with HIV. We will commission a new national HIV Prevention England programme backed by a total of £4.8 million of funding from April 2026 to March 2029. This programme supports communities disproportionately affected by HIV, including women, in particular black African and heterosexual women. The current programme delivers National HIV Testing Week, aimed at improving testing and increasing awareness of HIV prevention. In Testing Week 2025, heterosexual women accounted for 30% of all testers compared with 25% in 2024. We will also fund formula milk, and related sterilising equipment, for the infants of women living with HIV, thereby removing financial pressures and reducing the risk of transmission to babies.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the (a) demography and (b) regional locations of new diagnoses of (i) HIV, (ii) hepatitis B and (iii) hepatitis C.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency undertakes monitoring and surveillance of HIV and hepatitis B and C viral infections, including new diagnoses. This includes regional and demographic information that is published through a series of surveillance reports.
A regional breakdown of new HIV diagnoses can be accessed in the HIV diagnoses, AIDS, deaths and people in care: country and region tables, United Kingdom, 2015 to 2024 table, a copy of which is attached. In addition, demographic data is available in the HIV diagnoses, AIDS, deaths and people in care: key population HIV tables, England, 2015 to 2024 table, a copy of which is also attached.
Acute hepatitis B surveillance reports can be accessed at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/acute-hepatitis-b-england-enhanced-surveillance-reports
Hepatitis C laboratory reports are published annually at the following link:
The Department’s Fingertips tool also provides publicly accessible geographical information on hepatitis B and C and HIV, and is available at the following link:
https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/search/hepatitis