Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase access to long-acting reversible contraception.

Sexual health services are commissioned at a local level to meet the needs of the local population. The Government has mandated local authorities in England to commission comprehensive open access sexual health services, including “advice on, and reasonable access to, a broad range of contraceptive substances and appliances”. In 2018/19, there were 1.4 million contacts with sexual and reproductive health services for contraceptive reasons and 44% of contraception supplied was for long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARC). In additions there were 1.24 million prescriptions through primary care for LARC in 2018. We want to go further and ensure that all women have easy access to a choice of contraceptive methods and how we can continue to improve access will be considered through the new Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy.