Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the increase in sexually transmitted infections among 15–24 year-olds since the end of the COVID-19 lockdown.

The number of new sexually transmitted infections diagnosed among 15 to 24 years olds has increased by 29.3% from 2021 to 2022, or from 135,045 to 174,592. In particular:

- chlamydia diagnoses have increased 26%, from 88,367 in 2021 to 111,380 in 2022;

- gonorrhoea diagnoses have increased 91.7%, from 16,919 in 2021 to 31,037 in 2022;

- first diagnoses of genital herpes have increased 14.4%, from 8,270 in 2021 to 9,461 in 2022;

- diagnoses of infectious syphilis, including primary, secondary, and early latent, have increased 11.1%, from 968 in 2021 to 1,075 in 2022; and

- first diagnoses of genital warts have decreased 23.3%, from 7,559 in 2021 to 5,801 in 2022.

The data represents the number of diagnoses reported and not the number of people diagnosed. Data reported in 2020 and 2021 is notably lower than previous years due to the disruption to sexual health services during the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which reduced access to face-to-face appointments. Access to services subsequently recovered with the use of remote consultations and online testing expanding rapidly across the country.