Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the (a) cost to the economy and (b) number of deaths attributable to antimicrobial resistance in the last 12 months for which figures are available; whether he has made such estimates for future years; and if he will make a statement.

A broad estimate of the cost of antimicrobial resistance to the National Health Service is £180 million per annum.

Antimicrobial resistance is a global problem. In the longer term, a forecast of the global economic costs and deaths attributable to antimicrobial resistance is available from the independent review on antimicrobial resistance led by Lord O'Neill of Gatley. His review estimates that drug-resistant infections could kill an extra 10 million people globally every year by 2050, and have a cumulative cost to the world of around $100 trillion in lost output.

The United Kingdom is taking the lead in addressing antimicrobial resistance globally, investing £265 million in the Fleming Fund to strengthen surveillance of drug resistance and laboratory capacity in developing countries.