Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 3
30th Report - Antimicrobial resistance: addressing the risks
Published 13 Jun 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Antimicrobial resistance: addressing the risks All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Government has not been sufficiently transparent about what it is achieving against its AMR targets and commitments. Only one of the five domestic targets in the 2019–24 NAP was achieved, relating to reducing the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals. The other four, relating to reducing numbers of infections, reducing antimicrobial use in humans and using diagnostic tests were missed. The NAP also included 128 commitments, which were only tracked internally, with only seven of the 128 recorded as implemented. However, the government has not brought together and published information on this progress against its targets and commitments. In the AMR NAP 2024–29, the government acknowledged that progress had been slow in some areas, partly due to insufficient resources and focus. Government has also not published its chronic risk analysis of the AMR threat. recommendation DHSC and Defra should publish a regular update on their progress against the AMR targets and commitments. They should also coordinate with the Cabinet Office to include an assessment of the level of chronic risk that AMR presents.
From: Public Accounts Committee, 30th Report - Antimicrobial resistance: addressing the risks (HC 646), 13 June 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirtieth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 13 August 2025).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirtieth report from Session 2024-26
Published 18 September 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government says it agrees with the Committee's recommendations on antimicrobial resistance, and sets out target implementation dates ranging from Winter 2025 to Autumn 2027.
- On progress against targets, the government agrees, and says targets are subject to annual review over the summer, "with the potential to revise, if deemed appropriate and agreed by the UK AMR Strategy Board".
- On transparency, it agrees and says the government "will publish the first of these reports by the autumn", describing activity during the first year of the 2024-2029 National Action Plan.
- On diagnostics, it agrees (target date Spring 2027) and says engagement will inform an "infection diagnostics framework" by 2027, with point-of-care test pilots reporting in 2026-2027.
- On wastewater, it agrees (target date Autumn 2027); the department "will provide a full response via a White Paper in Autumn 2025" and "will commission further research" on evidence gaps "by Summer 2026".