Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of making pre-exposure prophylaxis available as part of plans to make prescription medications accessible directly in community pharmacies.

No specific assessment has been made. As part of the HIV Action Plan, we committed to supporting the system to continue to improve access to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention drug pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for key population groups.

A PrEP Access and Equity Task and Finish group was established in 2022 as part of the HIV Action Plan Implementation Steering Group comprised of key delivery partners and sector stakeholders. The task and finish group has delivered recommendations on improving PrEP delivery for key population groups which are currently being considered.