Business of the House

Peter Gibson Excerpts

Thursday 23rd March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

I am very sorry to hear about this case. As the hon. Gentleman will know, if he gives me the details, I will assist him in getting his constituent an answer immediately.

[Peter Gibson (Darlington) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend will be aware of the marvellous work being done in London, Brighton, Manchester and Blackpool with opt- out testing, following fantastic campaigns by the Terrence Higgins Trust and my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool South (Scott Benton). We are now weeks away from the end of the first year of opt-out testing. In the first 10 months, emergency departments in those areas have diagnosed almost 1,500 people with HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C. As the anniversary approaches, we will have a full year’s-worth of data to look at. Will she find time for a debate to explore the further roll-out of opt-out testing to all areas of high prevalence?

[Penny Mordaunt]

I thank my hon. Friend for drawing attention to this very important work, and I pay tribute to all the organisations that have assisted, including the Terrence Higgins Trust, the National AIDS Trust and the Elton John AIDS Foundation. My hon. Friend is right, in that the accident and emergency departments involved have diagnosed 268 people with HIV and found a further 139 people who knew that they were HIV positive but were not engaged with services. There are benefits elsewhere, as they found a further 730 people with hepatitis B and 299 people with hepatitis C. I think this is something we should be doing everywhere and I commend all those involved in this initiative and care for making such good progress.