PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
HIV Infection: Drugs (15 July 2019)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 9 July 2019 to Question 273480 on HIV Infection: Canterbury, if he will take steps to ensure that gay and bisexual men in Canterbury have access to PrEP.

Asked by:
Rosie Duffield (Independent)

The 36 month pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) Impact Trial is scheduled to continue until autumn 2020. Work is now starting to consider future commissioning for PrEP after the Trial has ended, which includes consideration of funding options.

The PrEP Impact trial is managed by the Trial Sponsor. Recruitment to places in the Trial is managed locally by participating clinics. Information on why the Gate Clinic at Kent and Canterbury Hospital is not open to gay and bisexual men is not held centrally.

Following funding from NHS England to pay for extra PrEP drug and research costs and the Secretary of State’s announcement on 30 January that the number of places on the PrEP Impact Trial would be doubled to 26,000, expansion of the Trial is now underway across the country. Participation in the Trial is on a voluntary basis and it is for research clinics and local authorities to decide whether they wish to take part and the number of allocated places they can accept.

Answered by:
Seema Kennedy (Conservative)
19 July 2019