Baroness Barker

Under the Banking Framework Agreement, banks choose which services they wish to offer through the Post Office network. Manual deposit services, where customers can deposit cash using a paying-in slip without a debit card, still exist for those banks under the framework who take up this service and are not being phased out.

The Post Office does not own the customer relationship or the banking products, and therefore neither Government nor the Post Office can mandate how current accounts operate or what arrangements banks put in place for cash deposits without the use of a debit card.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) publishes overall HIV prevalence and HIV testing data annually in the HIV Monitoring and Evaluation Framework and the HIV Official Statistics, available on the GOV.UK website.

Our recently published 2025 report Understanding HIV testing contains further information on people in prison. The report is also available on the GOV.UK website.

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.

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.

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.

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.