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: 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 women have control over their sexual and reproductive health decisions through empowering them to (1) negotiate condom use, (2) access pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and (3) make informed choices to prevent HIV transmission.
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. A key principle of our approach is to ensure that all underserved populations benefit equally from improvements made in HIV outcomes, including marginalised women. This includes scaling up HIV testing in targeted, high-risk populations and increasing equitable access to and use of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).
Initial analysis recently published by the UK Health Security Agency show that HIV opt-out testing in emergency departments in local authority areas with extremely high HIV prevalence has been particularly successful at reaching women with HIV testing. The HIV Action Plan Implementation Steering Group is developing a roadmap to help guide our efforts to improve equitable access, uptake and use of PrEP to meet the needs of key populations at significant risk of HIV, including heterosexual and transgender women, which is expected to be made available by the end of the year.
HIV Prevention England delivers a nationally co-ordinated programme of HIV prevention work designed to complement locally commissioned HIV prevention in areas with high HIV prevalence and for communities at risk of HIV transmission, with a particular focus on women, and includes the promotion of evidence-based HIV prevention interventions such as condom use.
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 address factors contributing to higher HIV transmission rates among marginalised women, such as sex workers, transgender women, and immigrants.
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. A key principle of our approach is to ensure that all underserved populations benefit equally from improvements made in HIV outcomes, including marginalised women. This includes scaling up HIV testing in targeted, high-risk populations and increasing equitable access to and use of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).
Initial analysis recently published by the UK Health Security Agency show that HIV opt-out testing in emergency departments in local authority areas with extremely high HIV prevalence has been particularly successful at reaching women with HIV testing. The HIV Action Plan Implementation Steering Group is developing a roadmap to help guide our efforts to improve equitable access, uptake and use of PrEP to meet the needs of key populations at significant risk of HIV, including heterosexual and transgender women, which is expected to be made available by the end of the year.
HIV Prevention England delivers a nationally co-ordinated programme of HIV prevention work designed to complement locally commissioned HIV prevention in areas with high HIV prevalence and for communities at risk of HIV transmission, with a particular focus on women, and includes the promotion of evidence-based HIV prevention interventions such as condom use.
Asked by: Baroness Barker (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Goldie on 13 July (HL8900), whether the RAF considered the recent HIV policy changes in civil aviation as part of its evidence review on HIV in the context of aviation.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
Recent policy changes in civil aviation were considered in the formulation of the Royal Air Force policy regarding HIV and the Aircrew Profession which was endorsed by a tri-Service committee comprised of medical specialists. The Chief Medical Officer of the Civil Aviation Authority and the Senior Medical Officer of the National Air Traffic Control Service are members of this committee to ensure appropriate benchmarking of military aviation medicine policy against civilian standards.
Asked by: Baroness Barker (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Goldie on 13 July (HL8900), which HIV specialists were consulted as part of the RAF evidence review into pilots and air traffic controllers living with HIV.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
The Royal Air Force consulted a range of primary and secondary care physicians during the development of the Aviation Medical policy relating to HIV for the Aircrew Profession. This included specialists in HIV, Infectious Diseases, Occupational Medicine, Aerospace Medicine, Aviation Psychiatry and Psychology and General Medicine as well as several General Practitioners with advanced training in Aviation Medicine.
Asked by: Baroness Barker (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Goldie on 13 July (HL8900), whether the British HIV Association was consulted as part of the RAF evidence review of pilots and air traffic controllers living with HIV.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
British HIV Association (BHIVA) guidance was central to the formulation of the policy on HIV and the Aircrew profession. While not directly consulted, BHIVA provided evidence and support to the wider review which informed the decision making on the policy outlined in Joint Service Publication 950 regarding individuals living with HIV serving in the UK Armed Forces.
Asked by: Baroness Barker (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Goldie on 13 July (HL8900), whether they will publish the RAF’s evidence review on HIV in the context of aviation.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
The Royal Air Force do not intend to publish the evidence review that informed the policy changes for HIV and the Aircrew Profession.
The Royal Air Force’s evidence review was principally based upon work previously published by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency and UK Civil Aviation Authority guidelines on HIV in the context of aviation. The RAF benchmarked this evidence against the usual standards and risk thresholds that underpin military aviation safety.
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 provide LGBTQ+ relevant mental health services.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We remain committed to the aims of the NHS Long Term Plan, investing at least £2.3 billion of extra funding a year in expanding and transforming mental health services in England by March 2024. This extra funding will enable an extra two million people, including those who identify as LGBT, to be treated by National Health Service mental health services by March 2024.
The funding includes £110 million to expand adult mental health services including NHS Talking Therapies (formerly known as Improving Access to Psychological Therapies). In 2021/22, there were 1.81 million referrals to talking therapies in England, compared to 1.46 million in 2020/21. 1.24 million referrals started a course of treatment within this year.
We also provided an additional £500 million in 2021/22 to accelerate our expansion plans to address waiting times for mental health services, give more people the mental health support they need, and invest in the NHS workforce.
The Advancing Mental Health Equalities strategy published by NHS England in 2020 helps set expectations for providers and commissioners to identify opportunities and drive forwards improvements to address inequalities in access to and experience of mental health services. The strategy supports local systems to tailor services to meet the needs of their local populations, including LGBTQ+ people. This includes improvements to the quality and use of data and information, for example the Equality Data Quality Guidance to help improve the collection of demographic data in the Mental Health Services Dataset, and a range of initiatives to improve diversity and representation in the mental health workforce.