Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he will make a decision on expanding opt-out blood-borne virus testing to all areas with a high HIV prevalence.

We are assessing all the evidence from the first year of the opt-out testing programme for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and blood-borne viruses in emergency departments, alongside the data on progress towards our ambitions to end new HIV transmissions and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and HIV related deaths within England by 2030.

This data will be used to examine the feasibility of further expanding the programme, including in areas with a high HIV prevalence and 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. A decision will be made in due course.