It’s been 100 days since the election. We wrote then that this is the government that could end new HIV cases in England. Since then, we’ve been busy engaging new Ministers and MPs to ensure that goal is on the agenda. Here’s what we’ve been up to.

1.    We took Terry’s portrait with us to meet the Public Health Minister 

We were pleased to be the first charity to meet with Public Health Minister Andrew Gwynne MP when he took up the role, two weeks after the election. Our Chief Executive Richard presented Minister Gwynne with a framed print of Curtis Holder’s ‘Three Ages of Terry’, the portrait of our namesake that hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. The Labour manifesto committed to a new HIV Action Plan for England. We discussed the need for accelerated action on testing, PrEP and care needed to reach that goal. 

2. Introducing new MPs to our cause 

Just three weeks after the election, with our friends at the APPG for HIV and AIDS and National AIDS Trust, we held a briefing event in parliament. More than 40 MPs – new and returning, from England, Scotland and Wales – joined us. We had a clear message: they are the generation of parliamentarians that could end new HIV cases across the UK.
 

Since then, we’ve held in depth meetings with many more of the new MPs to talk in detail and are beginning to develop a new network of MP champions who can support our work in parliament. 

3.    Secured a commitment to a new HIV Action Plan for England by next summer 

Minister Andrew Gwynne gave the keynote address at the HIV Prevention England Conference, organised by Terrence Higgins Trust as part of the HIV Prevention England programme that’s commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care. 
In his speech, the Minister highlighted the success of opt-out HIV testing in emergency departments and set out his ambitions for a new HIV Action Plan to be published by summer 2025. 

The Minister also committed to a change in how we report against UNAIDS’s 95-95-95 targets, which give an assessment of our progress to ending new HIV cases. At the moment, the framework doesn’t fully capture the number of people living with diagnosed HIV but not accessing care. Reviewing this will give us the truest possible picture of where we are and where we need to focus our efforts . 
 

4.    Successfully made the case on mpox vaccines

Our first briefing to Minister Gwynne included a recommendation that the government accept the JCVI’s November 2023 advice on mpox and gonorrhoea vaccines and urgently commission a vaccine programme. When in August a new mpox variant led to a serious situation unfolding in the Democratic Republic of Congo, we worked closely with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to monitor the situation in the UK. 

We raised our concerns with Ministers and so were pleased when the UK Government announced they had secured over 150,000 mpox vaccines to be offered to those at risk.

5.    Introduced new MPs to our services  

Over the summer we were pleased to show Chris Ward MP the work we do in Brighton and introduce him to the brilliant team at the Lawson Unit HIV Clinic. Soon we’ll be showing Sian Berry MP around too, and introducing Glasgow MPs to our new HQ in Scotland. 
 

6. Made the case for prevention in parliament 

When MPs returned from summer recess, we held an event in parliament to make the case for prioritising prevention.  
We were joined by Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting MP and Secretary of State for Science and Technology Peter Kyle MP, who spoke to their ambitions on HIV. 

We were pleased to hear the Health Secretary talk about his pride in the work he did on the HIV Commission and the importance of those recommendations he was part of making in 2030 (full speech here).

It was also great to hear Secretary of State for Science and Technology commit to ensuring his Department plays its role in ending new HIV cases, working in partnership with the Department for Health and Social Care (full speech here). 

Thanks to GSK for funding and sponsoring this event, which enabled us to engage with the government and politicians ahead of party conference season.  
We were joined by 30 MPs from across the house, who also heard from our Chief Executive Richard Angell and Sinead Ward, UK General Manager at ViiV. 
 

7. Took our message to party conferences

This year, we attended Labour, Conservative, SNP and Liberal Democrat party conferences to meet politicians and activists. 

At our event with LGBT Labour at Labour Party Conference, Secretary of State Wes Streeting acknowledged that we are not on track to reach our 2030 goal (full speech here) and outlined what his priorities will be for the new HIV Action Plan.

We were pleased to hear from Shadow Health Secretary Victoria Atkins at our event at Conservative Party Conference with LGBT Conservatives, who spoke to her commitment to fighting for ongoing opt-out HIV testing (full speech here) from opposition. 

At our event at SNP conference, Public Health Minister Jeni Minto reaffirmed the Scottish government’s commitment to ending new HIV cases by 2030 and her commitment to working with the charity sector to achieve that goal.
 

We also met with new MPs and peers at Liberal Democrat Conference and had a chat with Leila Moran MP, the new Chair of the Health Select Committee.

It’s been a busy 100 days, but this is just the beginning. Our efforts to introduce new MPs to our cause and ensure decision-makers understand HIV is all for a purpose. Our goal is to turn this understanding and support into action. We need your help to make that happen. So if you can, please donate to support us to keep pressing ahead. We can only do that together.