Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that superbugs do not make cancer untreatable.

The Government has been at the forefront of action to address antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The risk of infection from multidrug-resistant bacteria (or “superbugs”) is not confined to cancer treatment but has implications for a wide range of medical treatments and interventions, including routine surgery.

The UK Five Year Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy, published in 2013, set out an ambitious programme to slow the development and spread of AMR taking a “One-Health” approach spanning people, animals, agriculture and the wider environment.

The Strategy seeks to prevent infection, protect the antibiotics that we have and promote the development of new drugs and alternative treatments. Progress on these actions has been reported in the Second Annual Progress report available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/progress-report-on-the-uk-5-year-amr-strategy-2015

In September 2016, the Government published its response to the Independent Review on AMR, led by Lord O’Neill. This is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-response-the-review-on-antimicrobial-resistance

The response sets out further ambitions to address the challenges of antimicrobial resistance, including the following domestic ambitions:

- A reduction in healthcare associated Gram-negative bloodstream infections in England by 50% by 2020; and

- A reduction in inappropriate antibiotic prescribing by 50%, with the aim of being a world leader in reducing prescribing by 2020.

Internationally, the UK continues to lead in tackling AMR through globally co-ordinated and sustainably funded action. In September 2016, the Government’s leadership helped secure a UN declaration on AMR and a commitment from the G20 to look at solutions to the market failure on the development of new antimicrobials.