The UK Health Security Agency published a national Syphilis Response Plan in March 2026, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/syphilis-public-health-england-action-plan/ukhsa-syphilis-response-plan

The plan focuses on four key areas: preventing infection; improving testing; ensuring timely treatment; and eliminating congenital syphilis, where infection is passed from mother to baby during pregnancy. Actions include raising public and professional awareness, strengthening prevention activity, expanding and optimising access to testing, improving care pathways, and supporting partner notification to reduce onward transmission.

During 2025, national provision of doxycycline post exposure prophylaxis (doxyPEP) through sexual health services was implemented as a new intervention. This followed evidence of its impact on reducing syphilis incidence in clinical trials and real-world application. United Kingdom guidelines recommend doxyPEP for gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex with men and transgender women at elevated risk of acquiring syphilis.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) published a sexually transmitted infection (STI) prioritisation framework in 2024 to inform local prioritisation decisions for the control of STIs, including syphilis. The UKHSA’s STI Prioritisation Framework is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sti-prioritisation-framework

The UKHSA also previously published a Syphilis Action Plan, which is focused on actions to control and prevent syphilis, which include:

• increasing the testing frequency of gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex with men who are at the greatest risk of syphilis, and increasing the re-testing of syphilis cases after treatment;
• delivering partner notifications to the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV’s standards;
• maintaining high antenatal screening coverage and vigilance for syphilis throughout antenatal care; and
• sustaining targeted health promotion.

The wider population of heterosexual men and women should be offered a full sexual health screen when clinically appropriate, and especially when attending sexual health services. The UKHSA’s Syphilis Action Plan in available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/syphilis-public-health-england-action-plan

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) published a sexually transmitted infection (STI) prioritisation framework in 2024 to inform local prioritisation decisions for the control of STIs, including syphilis. The UKHSA’s STI Prioritisation Framework is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sti-prioritisation-framework

The UKHSA also previously published a Syphilis Action Plan, which is focused on actions to control and prevent syphilis, which include:

• increasing the testing frequency of gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex with men who are at the greatest risk of syphilis, and increasing the re-testing of syphilis cases after treatment;
• delivering partner notifications to the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV’s standards;
• maintaining high antenatal screening coverage and vigilance for syphilis throughout antenatal care; and
• sustaining targeted health promotion.

The wider population of heterosexual men and women should be offered a full sexual health screen when clinically appropriate, and especially when attending sexual health services. The UKHSA’s Syphilis Action Plan in available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/syphilis-public-health-england-action-plan

Syphilis screening is offered to all pregnant women in early pregnancy. The proportion of women taking up the test, known as coverage, has remained high in England for a number of years. The acceptable threshold is 95%, and the achievable threshold is 99%. Coverage has been above the achievable threshold in England since the screening year from 2016 to 2017.

This shows that pregnant women are being offered screening for syphilis as part of the NHS Infectious Diseases in Pregnancy Screening (IDPS) programme, are accepting the test, and are receiving their screening result. The blood test used for the IDPS programme is generally well-accepted by pregnant women, as seen by the high coverage rates.

Both gonorrhoea and syphilis have returned to, and exceeded, the high levels reported in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Between 2021 and 2022, gonorrhoea increased in all age-groups, with the largest rise among young people aged 15 to 24 years old. Over the same period, infectious syphilis increased among gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex with men, and heterosexuals.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) conducts comprehensive surveillance of sexually transmitted infections and supports local authorities and sexual health services in using this data to inform sexual health service delivery. The UKHSA is undertaking work with partner organisations to identify the best use of existing and emerging preventative interventions, to address the increase in gonorrhoea and syphilis.

Sexually transmitted infection diagnosis data is published annually, as official statistics by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), and is available at the GOV.UK website, in an online only format. There were 82,592 gonorrhoea diagnoses and 8,692 infectious syphilis diagnoses, including primary, secondary, and early latent, reported in sexual health services in England, in 2022. This is compared to 31,177 gonorrhoea diagnoses and 3,345 infectious syphilis diagnoses, primary, secondary, and early latent, in 2013.

Gonorrhoea is increasing in people of all ages, but the rise is highest among young people aged 15 to 24 years old. Infectious syphilis, including primary, secondary, and early latent, is increasing among gay, bisexual, or other men, who have sex with men and heterosexual people.

Dedicated sexual health services play a key public health role in diagnosis, early treatment and management of STIs and we are providing local authorities with more than £3.5 billion in 2023/24 (increasing to £3.6 billion in 2024/25) through our public health grant to support this activity.

We continue to support the delivery of local services, providing guidance and data through UKHSA and my department. In March 2023 the Department of Health and Social Care in collaboration with UKHSA, published the Integrated Sexual Health Service Specification to support local authorities in comprehensive commissioning of services and provide advice and guidance on managing STIs outbreaks.

UKHSA has also published a Syphilis Action Plan to address the increase in syphilis diagnosis in England, focusing on key interventions such as targeted testing, partner notification and awareness raising.

No assessment has been made of any resulting loss of working days, due to gonorrhoea and syphilis diagnoses.

Sexual health services play a key public health role in diagnosis, early treatment and management of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including syphilis and gonorrhoea. We are providing more than £3.5 billion to local authorities through the Public Health Grant to fund public health services, including sexual health services, in this financial year. Individual local authorities are responsible for and well placed to make funding and commissioning decisions about the sexual health services that best meet the needs of their local populations, ensuring patients can be adequately diagnosed and treated to avoid further transmission and long-term health problems.

As part of the HIV Action Plan, we are investing over £3.5 million from 2021 to 2024 to deliver the National HIV Prevention Programme for England, including HIV Testing Week and other campaigns to improve information and testing for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other STIs.

The UK Health Security Agency supports local areas to improve sexual health service delivery through data monitoring and reporting. It has also published a Syphilis Action Plan to address the increase in syphilis diagnosis in England, focusing on key interventions such as targeted testing, partner notification and awareness raising.

We have not made a specific assessment of a correlation between the Government’s public health funding and rates of syphilis and gonorrhoea in England.

Local government is responsible for commissioning sexual health services through the public health grant, and the Government allocated more than £3 billion for the public health grant in 2022/23. We will announce the 2023/24 public health grant allocations to local authorities in due course.

We remain committed to improving sexual and reproductive health, including reducing rates of syphilis, in England and are considering the need for further government plans. In 2021, we published our policy paper Towards Zero - An action plan towards ending HIV transmission, AIDS and HIV-related deaths in England - 2022 to 2025, available in an online-only format, which sets out the actions that we are taking to move towards ending HIV transmissions and HIV and AIDS related deaths within England by 2030. In August 2022 we also published the Women’s Health Strategy for England which sets out our 10-year ambitions and actions we are taking to improve health for women and girls including reproductive health.

We remain committed to improving sexual and reproductive health, including reducing rates of syphilis, in England and are considering the need for further government plans. In 2021, we published our policy paper Towards Zero - An action plan towards ending HIV transmission, AIDS and HIV-related deaths in England - 2022 to 2025, available in an online-only format, which sets out the actions that we are taking to move towards ending HIV transmissions and HIV and AIDS related deaths within England by 2030. In August 2022 we also published the Women’s Health Strategy for England which sets out our 10-year ambitions and actions we are taking to improve health for women and girls including reproductive health.

The most recent figures published by the UK Health Security Agency show that, last year, the rate of syphilis cases reached its highest since 1991 and the total number of cases hit its highest since 1948. That shocking increase in syphilis transmission is just one reason why we need the Government to set out their vision for sexual and reproductive health in their long-overdue sexual and reproductive health action plan. Can I therefore ask the Minister to set out when the plan will be published and what she is doing to stop the spread of syphilis?

Can I just reassure the hon. Lady that we take sexual health services very seriously? Local authorities in England have received more than £3 billion from Government to support those services. We have

produced a number of plans to improve sexual and reproductive health, from the HIV action plan in 2021 to the women’s health strategy, which focuses on sexual health as well.