Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce rates of sexually transmitted infections in Haringey.

We would encourage people to practice safe sex by using condoms and to access their free, local sexual health services if they consider themselves to be at risk of infection. Local authorities have been mandated to commission comprehensive open access sexual health services and are best placed to understand and meet the public health needs of their local communities.

Data published by Public Health England show that more people are accessing sexual health services, with attendances increasing by 7% between 2017 and 2018. This continues the trend of increases in attendances seen over the past five years. To help manage the overall increase in demand, online services are increasingly being commissioning to manage lower risk and asymptomatic patients. These services also have the potential to reach groups not currently engaged with clinic services.