Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the costs of additional inpatient hospital care for sexually transmitted infections resulting from cuts in funding for sexual health services.

Local authorities are responsible for commissioning comprehensive open access to most sexual health services. Dedicated sexual health services play a key public health role in diagnosis, early treatment, and management of sexually transmitted infections. Individual local authorities are responsible for making funding and commissioning decisions, working with local partners including the National Health Service via the integrated care systems, about the sexual health services that best meet the needs of their local populations through the Public Health Grant, including online and in-person provision.

In 2023/24, we allocated more than £3.5 billion to local authorities in England to fund public health services, including sexual health services, through the Public Health Grant. In 2024/25, the total Public Health Grant to local authorities will be £3.603 billion. This will provide local authorities with an average 2.1% cash increase compared to 2023/24.