Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to work with local authorities in areas where the risk of Lyme disease is higher than average to reduce the incidence of the disease.

The GOV.UK and NHS Choices websites have information for patients on the recognition of Lyme disease, tick awareness and the prevention of tick bites accessible at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/lyme-disease-guidance-data-and-analysis

and

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Lyme-disease/Pages/Introduction.aspx

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Clinical Knowledge summaries have information for clinicians available at:

https://cks.nice.org.uk/lyme-disease#!topicsummary

Public Health England (PHE) hold regular training days for general practitioners (GPs), and the charity Lyme Disease Action has public information on its website and a training module for GPs.

PHE run a tick surveillance system to identify tick distribution and areas where ticks are problems across England. PHE have been encouraging local authorities and park authorities to develop local public health material regarding tick risks and dealing with bites, and this has been taken up by some in high risk areas.