One of my greatest achievements during my tenure as Minister for Public Health was to launch the Government’s National HIV Action Plan, backed up with £23 million of funding to support the scaling up of HIV testing in targeted, high-risk populations and increasing access to the antiviral drug PrEP.
Despite the implementation of the HIV Action Plan and the recent announcement that the Government is investing a further £20 million to fund the expansion of the opt-out blood borne virus testing programme for HIV, there are still 4,500 people living with undiagnosed HIV in England.
In Parliament, I asked the Minister for Equalities, Rt Hon Stuart Andrew MP, for an update on the expansion of the of the opt-out HIV testing programme to an additional 47 hospitals across England – including in Nottingham and Derby and if he could confirm that work is now underway to ensure opt-out testing continues beyond April 2025. You can view my question to the Equalities Minister here.