Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to integrate work to increase public awareness and understanding of antimicrobial resistance and responsible antimicrobial use into the 2024 to 2029 five-year action plan for antimicrobial resistance.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) assisted in the development of an antimicrobial resistance (AMR) public awareness target in the 2024 to 2029 National Action Plan (NAP). The target states that ‘by 2029, we aim to increase UK public and healthcare professionals’ knowledge on AMR by 10%, using 2018 and 2019 baselines, respectively’.

The UKHSA will continue to survey the public across the five-year NAP to identify any fluctuations in knowledge from the 2019 baseline. Knowledge on antibiotic use and AMR is lowest amongst 18 to 34-year-olds, therefore we aim to:

• carry out a cumulative public learning campaign aimed at these age groups;
• educate health care professionals to support consultations;
• engage with the national curriculum review to influence the addition of AMR into the national curriculum; and
• continue to develop and update e-Bug resources, increasing accessibility to a wider audience, for example community groups, after school clubs, and home learning.