Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 28
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)
We asked about issues with infection prevention and whether some of the basics were not being upheld as much as they should. DHSC said that we should not underestimate how much of the battle against AMR “is really basic things”, including cleaning, handwashing and hospital design. It told us that the experience of COVID-19 led to mixed progress, improving handwashing but sometimes using inappropriate hygiene methods. It acknowledged that the NHS needed to get its staff, and not just doctors and nurses, back to following the basic procedures.70 NHS England told us that the introduction of the infection prevention and control manual has helped to standardise best practice.71 In a submission to us, the British Cleaning Council suggested that wider application of “Targeted Hygiene” in public places could help to reduce the spread of infections.72 67 C&AG‘s Report, para 1.9 68 Brian Duerden, Carole Fry, Alan P Johnson, Mark H Wilcox, ‘The Control of Methicillin- Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Blood Stream Infections in England’, Open Forum Infectious Diseases, volume 2, issue 2, March 2015 69 Q 45–46; C&AG‘s Report, para 3.10 70 Qq 43–46 71 Q 68 72 AR0011 17
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".