Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of home testing by post for sexually transmitted infections.

Local authorities in England are responsible for commissioning comprehensive, open access sexual health services, including sexually transmitted infection (STI) services, through the Public Health Grant, which was funded at £3.884 billion in 2025/26. It is for individual local authorities to decide their spending priorities, based on an assessment of local need, and to commission the blend of services that best suits their population, including decisions about online, face to face, or postal testing services.

The UK Health Security Agency published the STI prioritisation framework in 2024, which enables local systems to identify the best suite of interventions for their local populations.