Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to continue the reduction in the number of HIV cases in the UK.

Good practice followed at five specialist sexual health clinics (SHCs) that saw a large fall in new diagnoses of HIV among gay and bisexual men will be promoted at other SHCs across the country. The practices include increasing the uptake of testing for all gay and bisexual men by promoting repeat testing among those at higher risk of HIV acquisition and the early commencement of treatment for those who are diagnosed.

In addition to HIV testing at SHCs and self-sampling funded by local authorities Public Health England (PHE) has contracted HIV Prevention England to undertake a national programme of HIV prevention for high risk populations to promote key HIV prevention messages including HIV testing and safer sexual behaviours. PHE is also working with NHS England to clarify commissioning arrangements for treatment as prevention to accelerate this progress.