Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made a recent assessment of trends in the level of sexually transmitted diseases in (a) men and (b) women.

The UK Health Security Agency publishes annual official statistics on sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and in 2022 there were 392,453 new diagnoses of STIs in local government commissioned sexual health services England, an increase of 23.8% compared to 2021 with 317,022, but 16.2% lower compared to 2019 with 468,260. This increase can be partially explained by the recovery in provision of sexual health services in 2022 following the easing of restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. New STI diagnoses increased by 19% from 140,671 to 167,390 in women, and by 24% in men from 164,022 to 202,605 from 2021 to 2022.

STIs continue to show socioeconomic variation and disproportionately impact gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men, young people aged between 15 and 24 years old and some black ethnic groups. Young people aged between 15 and 24 years old remain the group most likely to be diagnosed with common STIs, and this may be due to higher rates of partner change among people aged between 16 and 24 years old. Young women may be more likely to be diagnosed with an STI due to an increased likelihood of them having male partners who are older than them.

Official STI statistics for 2022 are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/sexually-transmitted-infections-stis-annual-data-tables