We estimate that increases in rates of syphilis, gonorrhoea and chlamydia are due to a number of factors. These include increases in both the number of people attending sexual health services and the number of tests for sexually transmitted infections. Public Health England has advised that other factors include, better detection of infection and behavioural changes such as an increase in partner numbers and condomless sex, as well as, for some men who have sex with men, \u2018chemsex\u2019 and group sex facilitated by geosocial networking applications.<\/p>
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Local authorities will receive £3.1 billion in 2019/20, ring-fenced exclusively for use on public health, including sexual health. We are investing over £16 billion in local authority public health services over the five years of the 2015 Spending Review until 2020/21. It is for individual local authorities to decide their spending priorities based on an assessment of local need, including the need for sexual health services taking account of their statutory duties.<\/p>
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Local authorities are required by regulations to provide comprehensive open access sexual health services, including provision for sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment and contraception.<\/p>
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The latest statistics show that more people are now accessing sexual health services. Attendances have increased by 7% between 2017 and 2018 (from 3,337,677 to 3,561,548). This continues the trend of increases in attendances seen over the past five years. To help manage the overall increase in demand, local authorities are increasingly commissioning online services to manage lower risk and asymptomatic patients. These services have the potential to reach groups not currently engaged with clinic services.<\/p>
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<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4455", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Seema Kennedy"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "South Ribble"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Seema Kennedy"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-07-11", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-07-11T13:19:43.073Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "17"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Health and Social Care"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Health and Social Care"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2019-07-08", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Sexually Transmitted Infections"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the correlation between reductions to public health funding and increases in rates of syphilis and gonorrhoea.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/1439", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Norman Lamb"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "North Norfolk"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Norman Lamb"} ], "uin" : "274471"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 1, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }