Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to expand opt out testing for blood borne viruses in emergency departments in high prevalence areas.

We are considering all the evidence from the first year of opt-out HIV and blood borne testing in emergency departments, alongside the data on progress towards our ambitions to end new HIV transmissions and AIDS- and HIV-related deaths within England by 2030, when examining the feasibility for further expansion of this programme.

We will be sharing evidence as it emerges to support other areas of the country to make the case for implementing the same approach locally.