HC Deb 22 January 2002 vol 378 cc731-2
3. Mr. Neil Gerrard (Walthamstow)

What steps he will be taking to monitor HIV prevention work after April. [26362]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Yvette Cooper)

The Department plans to monitor local HIV prevention through the AIDS (Control) Act 1987 and through the NHS performance assessment framework. That will include monitoring expenditure for groups most at risk of HIV, and developing performance indicators to assess progress towards meeting the prevention target in the sexual health and HIV strategy.

Mr. Gerrard

My hon. Friend knows that some anxiety has been expressed about transferring commissioning to primary care trusts. I appreciate her comments about the Government's continuing to monitor. Will she assure us that that will continue beyond the next financial year into the following year, when primary care trusts become wholly responsible? If it is found that spending is not maintained, especially on vulnerable groups, will the Government be prepared to intervene?

Yvette Cooper

I can assure my hon. Friend that we envisage long-term arrangements for performance management on sexual health and HIV. It is right to bring that into the mainstream of the NHS, but we are not considering only transitional arrangements. We must continue to monitor progress to ensure that we achieve the challenging targets.

Mr. Peter Viggers (Gosport)

Can it really be true that nurses who are HIV-positive are being recruited? Do the Government believe that that poses no health hazard?

Yvette Cooper

No, it is not true.

Mr. Simon Burns (West Chelmsford)

Does the Minister know about doctors' grave anxieties, especially in London, that female asylum seekers who come to this country from areas of high HIV infection are ignorant of the dangers of HIV and will not be tested? That means that those who are infected do not receive proper health care as early as possible and it places additional strains on the provision of health care by the NHS.

Yvette Cooper

It is clearly important that people with HIV/AIDS receive treatment. We are keen to increase testing and to ensure that we reduce the amount of undiagnosed HIV. The hon. Gentleman is right that that affects asylum seekers and others who have travelled abroad. We are reviewing the procedures for providing health care and testing for asylum seekers to ensure that we deal properly with any problems that arise.