Asked by: Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of opt-out HIV testing in emergency departments in areas of London with high HIV prevalence.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has committed £20 million in 2022 to 2025 to fund the expansion of HIV opt-out testing in emergency departments (EDs) in areas with extremely high HIV prevalence. The NHS England London region took a decision to include all EDs in the project, which included some of which were in high HIV prevalence areas.
Provisional data from NHS England indicates that this HIV opt-out testing initiative has helped find more than 550 cases of undiagnosed or untreated HIV in the first year of the programme. We are currently considering the results of the first year of HIV opt-out testing and the programme’s contribution to finding cases of undiagnosed or untreated HIV and preventing further HIV transmissions, alongside data on progress towards our ambitions to end new HIV transmissions, AIDS and HIV-related deaths within England by 2030.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the (a) implications for his policies of trends in HIV/AIDS infections in Uganda and (b) adequacy of the impact of UK funded work in that field in that country.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK is the third largest donor to the Global Fund, having contributed £4.4 billion since its inception. Last year, the UK committed to providing a further £1 billion over three years to the Global Fund which will help to reach three million members of key populations, including LGBT+ groups, worldwide with prevention programmes.
The UK is helping to tackle HIV/AIDS in Uganda by providing targeted prevention, testing and treatment services through the Global Fund which procures 30 percent of HIV medicines used in Uganda. The UK's focus is on prevention, equity and stronger health systems, alongside championing human rights.
We are proud to have played a strong role in shaping the progressive Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Global AIDS Strategy "Ending Inequalities" 2021-26 setting an ambitious UN target to end AIDS by 2030.
Asked by: Carol Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support efforts to detect and treat HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK remains a world leader in efforts to end the global AIDS epidemic and funds all key partners in the global AIDS response, including the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), World Health Organization, Unitaid and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as well as the Robert Carr Fund.
Our recent pledge of £1 billion to the Global Fund will help to save over 1 million lives, including by providing antiretroviral therapy for 1.8 million people and HIV counselling and testing for 48 million people. Our funding for the Robert Carr Fund and UNAIDS supports initiatives to empower local civil society and grassroots organisations, predominantly in the Global South, to increase access to HIV prevention, testing and care services.
Asked by: David Mundell (Conservative - Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department plans to take steps to support LGBTQ+ communities in Uganda providing HIV prevention, testing and care services.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
Through our contributions to the Global Fund, the UK is helping to tackle HIV/AIDS in Uganda by providing targeted prevention, testing and treatment services. This is through community outreach and the facilitation of drop-in centres that offer services such as legal and human rights, psychosocial and mental health support. The UK is the third largest donor to the Global Fund, having contributed £4.4 billion since its inception. Last year, the UK committed to providing a further £1 billion over three years to the Global Fund which will help to reach three million members of key populations, such as LGBT+ groups, worldwide with prevention programmes.
The UK was proud to play a strong role with our partners in shaping the progressive new Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Global AIDS Strategy "Ending Inequalities" 2021-26 and an ambitious UN Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS in June 2021 to enhance reporting against targets to end AIDS by 2030.
Asked by: David Mundell (Conservative - Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what his Department's guidance is for HIV and AIDS organisations applying for bilateral funding under the International Development Strategy.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
FCDO spending on global health is guided by the International Development Strategy together with the Department's Health System Strengthening and Ending Preventable Deaths approach papers. Prospective partners seeking bilateral funding should consult these documents and the terms of any calls for proposals when submitting applications.
Health systems strengthening is key to the UK's long-term approach to protecting and promoting good health, including HIV prevention and response. The UK will focus on integrating essential services, including HIV services, through improved primary health care that includes public health functions, quality of care, rights and equity, including for women with HIV who have some of the highest maternal death rates.
Asked by: David Mundell (Conservative - Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to provide (a) financial and (b) other support to help other countries reduce cases of HIV and AIDS.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK remains a world leader in efforts to end the global AIDS epidemic and funds all key partners in the global AIDS response, including the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria.
Our recent pledge of £1 billion to the Global Fund will save over 1 million lives, including by providing antiretroviral therapy for 1.8 million people and HIV counselling and testing for 48 million people. Our funding for the Robert Carr Fund and UNAIDS supports initiatives to empower local civil society and grassroots organisations, predominantly in the Global South, to increase access to HIV prevention, testing and care services.
Asked by: David Mundell (Conservative - Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has taken steps to offer support to local organisations who provide prevention, testing and care services for HIV and AIDS in the Global South.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK remains a world leader in efforts to end the global AIDS epidemic and funds all key partners in the global AIDS response, including the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria.
Our recent pledge of £1 billion to the Global Fund will save over 1 million lives, including by providing antiretroviral therapy for 1.8 million people and HIV counselling and testing for 48 million people. Our funding for the Robert Carr Fund and UNAIDS supports initiatives to empower local civil society and grassroots organisations, predominantly in the Global South, to increase access to HIV prevention, testing and care services.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help reduce the level of transmission of sexually transmitted infections.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We are committed to improving sexual health in England and have published an HIV Action Plan in 2021, which sets out the actions that we are taking from 2022 to 2025 to move towards ending human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmissions and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)- and HIV-related deaths within England by 2030. As part of the plan, we are investing over £3.5 million from 2021 to 2024 to deliver the National HIV Prevention Programme for England, including HIV Testing Week and other campaigns to improve information and testing for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
Dedicated sexual health services play a key public health role in diagnosis, early treatment and management of STIs, and we are providing more than £3.5 billion to local authorities through the public health grant to fund public health services, including sexual health services, in this financial year. Individual local authorities are responsible for and well placed to make funding and commissioning decisions about the sexual health services that best meet the needs of their local populations.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) conducts comprehensive surveillance of STIs and HIV in England and uses this data to understand national and local level trends and monitor preventative interventions. UKHSA also undertakes work to inform STI prevention programmes such as the National Chlamydia Screening Programme delivered by local authorities.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the key emerging data is from the emergency department opt out testing for HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C; and how that data will inform the future development of the scheme.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
In the first 100 days of opt out testing over 250,000 HIV tests and over 100,000 hepatitis C virus antibody tests were delivered from April to July 2022. This testing resulted in identification of more than 500 people with a previously unknown (unrecognised or undiagnosed) blood borne virus. The full report can be found at the following link:
NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency will publish reports evaluating the impact of the first year of opt-out HIV and blood borne virus testing in 2023. We will consider all the evidence from the first year of opt-out testing alongside the data on progress towards our ambitions to end new HIV transmissions and AIDS- and HIV-related deaths within England by 2030 when examining the feasibility for further expansion of this programme.
We will be sharing evidence as it emerges to support other areas to make the case locally for implementing the same approach in other areas of the country.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to expand opt out testing for blood borne viruses in emergency departments in high prevalence areas.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
We are considering all the evidence from the first year of opt-out HIV and blood borne testing in emergency departments, alongside the data on progress towards our ambitions to end new HIV transmissions and AIDS- and HIV-related deaths within England by 2030, when examining the feasibility for further expansion of this programme.
We will be sharing evidence as it emerges to support other areas of the country to make the case for implementing the same approach locally.