Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what additional steps his Department is taking to tackle sexually transmitted diseases.

Local authorities in England are mandated to provide comprehensive open access sexual health services including access to the full range of contraception and sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment. The Government provides funding to local authorities for their public health responsibilities, including sexual health services, through the public health grant. It is for individual local authorities to decide their spending priorities based on an assessment of local need, including the need for sexual health services taking account of their statutory duties. The number of consultations at sexual health services increased by 7% between 2018 and 2019 (from 3,613,447 to 3,852,121).

Work on the development of a new national sexual and reproductive health strategy is underway with the Department working with Public Health England, NHS England and NHS Improvement, local government and other partners. Details of the strategy’s scope and objectives will be announced in due course.