What it has done to support and develop online testing for sexual health and blood borne viruses, and how many people have accessed and use…

The Scottish Government began supporting efforts to implement online testing in 2020. Since then, we have provided over £0.5m for the development of a “once for Scotland” approach to STI home testing. This was rolled out in NHS Lothian in December, and work is underway to explore further roll-out. This service allows people to request a test online and perform home self-sampling, while providing clinicians with comprehensive, real-time data. We are aware that in addition to the work supported by the Scottish Government that a number of NHS Boards have also progressed work in this area. The Scottish Government does not directly collect data on the numbers of people who have directly accessed such services.
Since 2021, we have also provided funding to pilot the provision of at home HIV self-testing kits. Two methods of testing for HIV have been offered, encompassing HIV self-testing (in which the individual tests their own blood sample and interprets the results) and HIV self-sampling (in which a laboratory tests and processes the blood sample). The most current data from HIV Scotland shows that over 10,000 kits have been requested through this Scottish Government-funded project. This further breaks down to 8,545 self-testing kits and 1,752 self-sampling kits.