Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to limit the spread of extensively antibiotic-resistant gonorrhoea (1) in the general population, (2) in vulnerable populations, and (3) among elderly populations.

The effectiveness of treatment for gonorrhoea continues to be threatened by the development of resistance to the last-line treatment, ceftriaxone. The UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) Gonococcal Resistance to Antimicrobials Surveillance Programme (GRASP) includes a suite of testing and surveillance systems to detect and monitor antimicrobial resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae and potential treatment failures. GRASP reports annually on drug resistance in N. gonorrhoeae in England and Wales and has directly influenced changes in treatment guidelines on three occasions.

Additionally, all primary diagnostic laboratories test gonococcal isolates for susceptibility to ceftriaxone and refer suspected resistant isolates to the UKHSA national reference laboratory for confirmatory testing and follow-up in real-time. UKHSA has published guidance on managing cases of ceftriaxone-resistant gonorrhoea and performs a risk assessment for each case. If there is a risk of transmission within England, UKHSA instigates an Incident Response to contain spread.

This applies to all population groups, including vulnerable and elderly populations, as the approach to tackling antibiotic-resistant gonorrhoea is universal across England.