Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when his Department plans to publish its strategy for halving inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions by 2020.

Optimising prescribing is a key priority in the UK Five Year Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Strategy 2013-2018.

Public Health England and NHS Improvement are in the process of establishing a Joint Advisory Group to establish a central authority of national and local experts in the field to take forward the Government’s ambition to halve inappropriate antibiotic prescribing. This Group will produce a detailed implementation plan for delivery of this ambition. The Department will publish progress on halving inappropriate prescribing through its annual progress reports on the AMR Strategy.