Asked by: Baroness Barker (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what position the UK will take at the United Nations High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS in June on ensuring equitable global access to long-acting HIV prevention and treatment tools, including measures to address intellectual property barriers and high costs that limit access in lower-income countries.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
The High-Level Meeting comes at a critical moment for the global HIV response and offers an opportunity to reaffirm international commitments to end AIDS for good. The UK has endorsed the Global AIDS Strategy 2026-2031 and will work to ensure the political declaration upholds its ambitions, particularly on human rights and gender equality, as well as harnessing the opportunity presented by long-acting injectable HIV prevention and treatment.
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 for the UK's position at the United Nations High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS in June to include specific commitments on gender-transformative approaches to HIV prevention and treatment, including targeted measures for adolescent girls and young women and the integration of HIV services with sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
The High-Level Meeting comes at a critical moment for the global HIV response and offers an opportunity to reaffirm international commitments to end AIDS for good. The UK has endorsed the Global AIDS Strategy 2026-2031 and will work to ensure the political declaration upholds its ambitions, particularly on human rights and gender equality, as well as harnessing the opportunity presented by long-acting injectable HIV prevention and treatment.
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 will take to ensure that people in prisons have effective access to HIV prevention tools, including condoms, pre-exposure prophylaxis, post-exposure prophylaxis, and harm-reduction measures.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The new HIV Action Plan 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.
Sexual health services in prisons are commissioned by NHS England under the Section 7a Public Health Functions Agreement with the Department. They 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 receive equitable healthcare comparable to that available in the community.
Access to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis in England is via commissioned level three 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 provision, where the sexual health team come on-site, or out-reach provision, where the individual goes out to clinic. The level three sexual health team use the same commissioning policy to provide the service on the same basis to detained people and people in the community.
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, 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.
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 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.
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 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.
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 improve the collection, monitoring, and publication of data on HIV prevalence, testing, prevention, and treatment in prisons.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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, which are 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 Chief Medical Officer’s annual report in 2025, The health of people in prison, on probation and in the secure NHS estate in England, also available on the GOV.UK’s website, highlighted the significant health challenges faced by people in prison, including in sexual health and HIV, and we are committed to addressing this.
The UKHSA is working with regional partners to carry out an audit to understand the provision of HIV diagnosis, prevention, and care in English prisons. This will highlight what barriers people are facing and what we need to do to ensure every person gets the care they deserve.
Furthermore, the UKHSA is currently independently reviewing blood borne virus service provision in prisons, including the opt-out testing programme which has been in place since 2014 to update guidance, identify areas to optimise implementation, and ensure prisoners are fully supported.
Asked by: Baroness Barker (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the implementation and uptake of opt-out HIV blood-borne virus testing in prisons across England; and what actions they plan to take if inconsistencies or low uptake are found.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The new HIV Action Plan 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 upon 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, 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.
Asked by: Baroness Barker (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what specific programmes or strategies they have put in place or planned to reduce HIV-related stigma and unlawful discrimination in prisons, including training for prison staff and measures to protect confidentiality.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
All new prison officers complete foundation training which focuses on professional standards, effective communication, and working safely and respectfully with a diverse prison population. This includes training on identifying and supporting vulnerable prisoners, managing sensitive situations, and acting in line with organisational policy and the law.
Training also covers information management and recordkeeping, reinforcing the importance of handling personal and medical information appropriately. HMPPS data protection and information governance requirements apply across the prison estate to safeguard confidentiality.
In addition, HMPPS, working with Skills for Justice, has developed a core capabilities framework for prison and probation staff who work with individuals with health, care and wellbeing needs. The framework sets out the skills, knowledge and behaviours required to support individuals in a person-centred way, including recognising needs, working in partnership with healthcare professionals, and managing sensitive information. It also supports leadership capability and can be used to strengthen existing training provision and identify gaps.
Prison healthcare services in England are commissioned by NHS England. HMPPS works in close partnership with NHS England to ensure people in custody have access to HIV testing and treatment, and that services are delivered safely and confidentially. This collaboration is underpinned by the National Partnership Agreement, which sets out shared priorities and responsibilities to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequalities in custodial settings.
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: Baroness Barker (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to publish annual data about HIV prevalence, testing uptake and treatment adherence in prisoners, disaggregated by gender and security category.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
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.