HC Deb 15 February 1988 vol 127 cc499-500W
Mr. Chris Smith

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will indicate, for the current financial year and for the past two financial years, the funds devoted by the Government specifically to respond to the AIDS crisis, broken down into funds spent on(a) public education, (b) health care and treatment, (c) provision of drugs, (d) research and (e) other actions.

Mr. Newton

[holding answer 26 October 1987]: It is not possible to give a comprehensive three-year breakdown of funding devoted to all aspects of the Government's response to the challenge posed by HIV infection and AIDS. Much of the expenditure on care and treatment of people with HIV and AIDS, and the provision of drugs, comes from health authorities' and boards' general allocations and is not identifiable separately. This is also the case with the Ministry of Defence's Defence Medical Services where any expenditure on AIDS is subsumed within their overall allocation.

The table sets out the money expended for the United Kingdom (figures rounded to the nearest £000) over and above the resources devoted to AIDS services by health authorities and boards from their general allocations. The figures must be read in conjunction with the notes.

£'000s
1985–86 1986–87 121987–88
(a) Public education3 548 7,303 12,578
(b) Health care and treatment4 1,169 3,189 21,556
(c) Provision of drugs — — 51,600
(d) Research 470 1,050 9,010
(e) Other6 1,148 2,372 16,300
1 1987–88 figures include estimates based on likely expenditure at end of 1987–88 financial year.
2 Excludes £125,000 of the Welsh Health Promotion Authority's budget, to support the work of the Welsh AIDS Campaign.
3 Excludes educational material aimed at specific groups, included under (e) Other.
4 Amounts shown are specific extra allocations made to health authorities as a contribution towards these costs. Other care and

reatment costs are met from health authorities general allocations, and are not separately identifiable.
5 Central allocation to health authorities for Retrovir (AZT). Health authorities' and boards' expenditure on drugs otherwise met from other allocations and not separately identifiable.
6 For example: overseas aid, funding of voluntary organisations, advice and guidance to specific groups (such as schools and the education service, employers and the police), and the Public Health Laboratory Service AIDS programme.