Antibiotics: Drug Resistance
(asked on 1st February 2024) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to reduce the potential impact of increased antimicrobial resistance caused by the overuse of antibiotics on industrial farms on human health.
The Government takes a cross-governmental, One-Health approach to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as set out in the UK 5-year National Action Plan for antimicrobial resistance. Through the National Action Plan, activity is delivered across the four nations of the United Kingdom on human health, animal health, food, environment, research, and surveillance. The plan is available at the following link:
The UK is committed to reducing unnecessary use of antibiotics in animals to reduce the risk of the development and spread of AMR in animals and humans. The recently published UK Veterinary Antimicrobial Resistance and Sales Surveillance report shows that sales of antibiotics in food producing animals are at their lowest ever level, with a 59% reduction since 2014. The report is available at the following link: