Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve the (a) monitoring and (b) treatment of tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a statutorily notifiable disease in the United Kingdom. Surveillance data on all individuals diagnosed with TB is collected via the UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) National TB Surveillance System (NTBS), which was launched in 2021 to replace older systems.

Scotland joined the NTBS in March 2025, bringing all four UK nations into a single system to improve TB control. Regular data and analysis to support TB control activities is published by the UKHSA, with both annual and quarterly analyses and updates available, respectively, at the following two links:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tuberculosis-in-england-2024-report

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tuberculosis-in-england-national-quarterly-reports/national-quarterly-report-of-tuberculosis-in-england-quarter-3-2024-provisional-data

Annual data sorted by National Health Service and local authority geographies is also available publicly on the Fingertips website, which is available at the following link:

https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/tb-monitoring

The UKHSA and NHS England’s joint Tuberculosis (TB): action plan for England, 2021 to 2026 details actions to support prevention, detection, and control of TB. This includes actions targeted at improving treatment completion and ensuring effective management of drug-resistant TB.

The UKHSA routinely undertakes whole genome sequencing of all TB strains through the National Mycobacterial Reference Service to support treatment decisions based on resistance profiles and public health action with high resolution typing.

NHS England and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital’s Getting it Right First Time review of TB services reported in March 2025, with a series of recommendations to reduce unwarranted variation and improve care, including to underserved populations. Work is underway, including a call for evidence launched on 2 April 2025, to review and update the national action plan, with further information available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/calls-for-evidence/tuberculosis-national-action-plan-2026-to-2031#:~:text=The%20government%20is%20developing%20the,for%20England%2C%20published%20in%202021