Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the oral evidence of Dr Olwen Williams, the President of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV, to the Health and Social Care Committee on Sexual Health on 5 February 2019, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the increase in the number of cases of syphilis diagnoses recorded in 2018.

Public Health England (PHE) routinely collects data on syphilis diagnoses made at sexual health clinics. Data for 2018 will be published in summer 2019. PHE is developing a Syphilis Action Plan, with recommendations for PHE and partner organisations, to address the continued increase in syphilis diagnoses in England.