Recommendation 13

The 2024–29 National Action Plan (NAP) includes new targets which are less stretching than the targets in the 2019–24 NAP. While the government previously set targets for reductions of 50% in Gram-negative bloodstream infections and 10% in drug-resistant infections, the corresponding targets in the 2024–29 NAP only seek to prevent an increase in the number of these infections from a 2019–20 baseline.31 NHS England told us it believes these targets are still challenging due to changing demographics, in particular an increasing and ageing population with comorbidities.32 However, it is not clear that the new targets are ambitious enough to achieve a meaningful mitigation of the threat of AMR in the UK.33 Lord O’Neill told us that he believed that the 2024–29 NAP could be more ambitious in some areas.34 UKHSA told us that it considers that the targets are challenging. It promised that if government was overachieving and able to hit targets early then it would review and reset those targets during the course of the 2024–29 NAP.35