Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to continue the Hepatitis C opt-out testing programme beyond March 2025.

Opt-out testing in emergency departments for bloodborne viruses, including hepatitis C, is live at 34 sites in areas of extremely high prevalence of HIV, and is expanding to areas of high prevalence of HIV. A further 47 emergency department sites will be funded for a 12-month period across the financial years 2024/25 and 2025/26.

On 9 November 2023, the UK Health Security Agency published a report evaluating the first 12 months of the NHS England funded emergency department opt-out testing programme for bloodborne viruses. The initiative has so far been successful, with 499 people being diagnosed with hepatitis C in the first year of the testing. Further information on this programme is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bloodborne-viruses-opt-out-testing-in-emergency-departments