Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that women have control over their sexual and reproductive health decisions, and are empowered to negotiate condom use, access PrEP, and make informed choices to prevent HIV transmission.

We remain committed to improving sexual and reproductive health in England, including for women from all groups.

The HIV Action Plan is the cornerstone of our approach in England to drive forward progress and achieve our goal to end new HIV transmissions, AIDS and HIV-related deaths within England by 2030. A key principle of our approach is to ensure that all populations benefit equally from improvements made in HIV outcomes, including women.

As part of the HIV Action Plan, the Department is investing over £3.5 million from 2021-2024 to deliver the National HIV Prevention Programme, a nationally co-ordinated programme of HIV prevention work that is designed to complement locally commissioned prevention activities in areas of high HIV prevalence and for communities at risk of HIV transmission, with a particular focus on black African women. HIV Prevention England (HPE) aims to improve knowledge and understanding of HIV transmission and reduce stigma within affected communities through the delivery of public campaigns such as National HIV Testing Week, and evidence-based HIV prevention interventions in partnership with local organisations and charities, including women-led organisations.

HPE works with a wide range of models and their network of influencers. As part of HPE campaigns, a range of people share their stories and experiences on HIV, STIs and sexual health this includes women and other people who are likely to be recognisable to specific demographics.

Since 2013, the Government has mandated local authorities in England to commission comprehensive open access to most sexual health services, including free and confidential HIV testing, and provision of the HIV prevention drug PrEP through the Public Health Grant, funded at £3.4 billion overall in 2022/23. It is for individual local authorities to decide their spending priorities based on an assessment of local need and to commission the service lines that best suit their population.

In 2022, we published the Women’s Health Strategy for England setting out our 10-year ambitions and actions to improve health for women and girls.