§ Mr. Alex CarlileTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what regulations govern the notification of a prisoner in the event that he or she is placed in a cell with a prisoner with the AIDS virus; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Peter Lloyd[holding answer 26 May 19941:] Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from A. J. Butler to Mr. Alex Carlile, dated 6 July 1994:
The Home Secretary has asked me, in the absence of the Director General from the office, to reply to your recent Question about what regulations govern the notification of a prisoner in the event that he or she is placed in a cell with a prisoner with the AIDS virus.The Prison Service policy on HIV is given in Circular Instruction 30/1991. It emphasises that strict medical confidentiality shall apply to all prisoners' medical information, including information about HIV status. This policy reflects the policy which is adopted in the general community. Consequentially no prisoner would be notified about the health status of any other prisoner.HIV testing in prison is carried out at the request of prison inmates, or on the advice of a prison medical officer for diagnostic purposes and only with the inmate's informed consent. This practice also mirrors that applying in the community outside prison. As a result the number of prisoners known to have HIV infection in prison is a proportion of the total number of prisoners who may have HIV infection. To provide information about the health status of known HIV positive inmates would breach medical confidentiality, may provide prisoners with a false sense of security in relation to HIV infection, and be counter productive in that it may discourage those people concerned about HIV infection from coming forward for advice, medical care, counselling and support.