Contraceptives

(asked on 25th October 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the extent of the reduction in uptake of long-acting reversible contraception; and what assessment he has made of the implications of that reduction for his policies.


Answered by
Steve Brine Portrait
Steve Brine
This question was answered on 2nd November 2017

Local authorities are mandated to commission comprehensive contraception services that meet the needs of their population. Sexual and Reproductive Health Profiles, which include contraception, have been developed by Public Health England (PHE) to support local authorities, public health leads and other interested parties to monitor the sexual and reproductive health of their population and the contribution of local public health related systems. The Department closely monitors the range of indicators and outcomes at national level.

In 2017/18 PHE will produce a State of the Nation Report for Reproductive Health which will highlight delivery of contraception, including Long Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC), in England using currently routinely collected data as well as large nationally-representative surveys.

While general practice prescriptions for LARC have fallen by 6% over the last three years, within sexual and reproductive health services the proportion of women using LARC continues to increase and is now at 39% of those attending for contraception purposes.

Reticulating Splines