Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department will take to address the displaced activity that monkeypox has caused within the sexual health services.
We continue to work with the UK Health Security Agency, local authorities and NHS England to monitor the impact of monkeypox on sexual health services and maintain access to routine sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, including HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis and contraception.
We have allocated more than £3 billion to local authorities in England to fund public health services, including SRH services, through the Public Health Grant in 2022/23. It is for individual local authorities to determine spending priorities based on an assessment of local need, including for SRH services. In addition, we have provided funding for antiviral medicines to treat monkeypox, the procurement of the smallpox vaccine and for sexual health services to deliver this vaccine to those eligible for vaccination.