Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether his Department is making preparations to plan for widespread resistance to known antibiotics.

The Government has already made comprehensive plans to address the threat of antibiotic resistance through the UK Five Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy 2013 – 2018

The UK Strategy, which was published in September 2013, sets out our overarching goal to slow the development and spread of antimicrobial resistance. It focusses activities around three strategic aims, namely, to improve the knowledge and understanding of antimicrobial resistance; to conserve and steward the effectiveness of existing treatments; and to stimulate the development of new antibiotics, diagnostics and novel therapies. The strategy is based on the principle of “One Health”, tackling the problem of resistance in humans, animals and the environment.

Globally, the UK has led efforts to tackle antimicrobial resistance. For example, we have taken the lead in the development and adoption, in May 2015, of a new World Health Organization (WHO) Resolution on antimicrobial resistance. We are now working towards agreement for a high-level meeting on antimicrobial resistance at the United Nations General Assembly in 2016.