World AIDS Day on 1 December 2025 is a global commitment to reflect on progress, challenges, and commitments in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Key messages for World AIDS Day 2025 is a call for global renewal to funding commitments, scale up prevention innovations and address structural barriers to care.

England met UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets again with 95% diagnosed, 99% on treatment, 98% virally suppressed. Ageing populations, those who are over 50 years old make up 52% of people in HIV care. Whereas, young people between ages 15-24 year old receive lower treatment coverage (96%) and viral suppression (91%).

The UK has made significant progress toward the 2030 goal of zero new HIV transmissions, but it is not on track. Rising diagnoses among heterosexuals and ethnic minorities, persistent late diagnoses, and inequalities in PrEP access remain major challenges. Sexual health services are under strain, impacting testing and prevention. Expansion of opt-out testing in emergency departments and digitial PrEP access are key recommendations.

HIV Aids testing among 15-24 year olds fell by 7% while older age groups saw increases. Positivity highest among Black African individuals born in high-prevalence countries (0.7%). There was a 3% increase in HIV tests at sexual health services, a total of 1.32M tests in 2024. 

There is a great effort for communities to continue to lead resilience efforts and fight stigma. There is strong focus on the UK to accelerate testing, tackle inequalities, and expand PrEP access to stay on track for 2030.

On Tuesday evening 25 November 2025 in the Cholmondley Room, there was a gathering of the interest groups and people from the Gardening and Horticultural world.

The event was opened by the Co chair Baroness Janet Fookes and we heard from Boyd Douglas Davies Chair of the Environmental Group.

The Minister Emma Hardy gave a speech on Water resiliance and the audience were delighted to hear from her.

Adam Frost, from BBC Gardeners World told us about his background and his hopes for the future of gardening.

I gave the vote of thanks and here is my speech:

Thank you to Minister Emma Hardy who had kindly responded to a late text and agreed to speak at our event.

Thank you also to Adam Frost- I note that he didn't bring his special spade, which a member of the audience quipped was taken off him by security.

We are in the middle of votes and I thank all colleagues who were here and also former Minister Daniel Zeichner, the industry appreciated engagement with him.

I want to give a round up of the APPG meetings:

We visited RHS Wisley and there was a Parliamentary Garden tour which was conducted by Annabelle.

Unlike Elvis Costello we did want to go to Chelsea and a fantastic surprise: Richard Evison with 30 gold medals produced a Clematis which flowers in May to July and then again in late summer and it is :

Clematis Baroness FOOKES; a gorgeous purple clematis. We are so proud of you Janet.

The RHS  said they would not include any exhibitors who use peat compost next year -so we are making progress.

We visited Provender: a fantastic company who also face challenges.

And as we have the Minister here, this environmental horticultural company cannot capture and store their own water, but a soft drinks company 2 miles away can.

Thanks to Max Wilson and Tim Moxham for sorting out today and their support for the APPG. They make sure all goes well in all our meetings as we glide like swans on the surface.

I want to thank our sponsors for this evening Westland, The RHS Horticultural Trade Association and British Association of Landscape Industries thank you for your support today.

We start and enjoy The Secret Garden and then on to the poetry of John Clare.

Marianne North Paintings in Kew to Beatrix Potters work on fungi

we will see drifts of snowdrops but I encourage you to lift the heads and look at the beauty inside, and the blowsy rhododendrons in Isabella Plantation, in Richmond Park

Especially the Readers Digest Encyclopaedia of Garden Plants and flowers, what an amazing publication.

I want to say to every part of the industry those who pot on; stack the shelves of our garden centres; run the garden centres, breed new plants; this is worth £38 billion and over 700,000 jobs so thank you.

You bring us joy, beauty and humanity.

 

 

Waitrose held a drop in at Parliament on Tuesday 25 November 2025 to ask the Government about  animal welfare labelling to be mandatory across all supermarkets so shoppers, regardless of where they shop can make choices that match their values. 

The Government plans to release an Animal Welfare Strategy soon and Waitrose would like the Government to look at:



















The establishment of standardised legal definitions to determine if marketing terms/ descriptions can be used on products from distinct production systems;
The introduction of mandatory method of production labelling; and
More business to commit to deliver the Better Chicken Commitment. 



















Waitrose have their own farm, Leckford where they implement these standards and their products carry the label as shown (left).

How the animals are reared and the food we eat are vital for us as consumers for our health.  

The Bill returned to the House of Commons on 19 November 2025 after passing its third reading in the House of Lords on 17 November 2025.

The Bill aims to transform the cross-system response to the threats against UK border security and strengthen the operation of the border security, asylum and immigration systems.

There was one motion: to disagree with Lords Amendment 37, which would mandate the Home Secretary to collate and publish statistics on the number of overseas students who have had their student visa revoked as a result of the commission of criminal offences, the number of overseas students who have been deported following the revocation of their student visa and the number of overseas students detained pending deportation following the revocation of their student visa.

The motion passed: Ayes 326, Noes 92, and will return to the House of Lords for consideration.

I was delighted to catch up with Jennifer Pheasey ( on the right in the picture above) from the Horticulture Trades Association (HTA) at the drop in on 19 November 2025 . In addition to finding out how important the industry is, the HTA provided plants to take away and I pledged my support for the industry generally and especially as Co-Chair of the APPG on Gardening and Horticulture.   

The HTA was founded in 1899, represents the entire environmental horticulture sector in the UK. The HTA protects the production and business of cultivating flora for commercial, environmental and health advancement. The HTA are a member-centric organisation with no shareholders with a primary focus to support their members. The HTA has over 1,300 garden businesses among our members including retailers, wholesalers, growers, manufacturers and landscapers, providing representation for the industry.  

In 2023, the Environmental Horticulture industry supported the employment of 722,000 jobs in the UK.

The import of plant and plant material were valued at £780.4 million: 99% of these imports came from EU countries.

The exports of plants and plant material were valued at £29.5 million: 74% of these exports went to EU countries.

Garden Centre visits are estimated to be 203 million in 2024 and 68% of UK adults said they visited a garden centre at least once in 2024. On average, each UK adult visited a garden centre 3.8 times throughout 2024.

It is important to support the our local garden centres.