Collapse in sexual health checks after funding cuts driving soaring STI rates, Labour suggests

Syphilis, gonorrhoea and chlamydia all on the rise

A strain of gonorrhoea (Rex)

Sexually transmitted infections are soaring across England as new figures show the number of people receiving sexual health checks has collapsed as budgets have been cut.

STIs such as syphilis, gonorrhoea and chlamydia are all on the rise, Public Health England has previously warned.

Now, health minister Steve Brine has admitted that related health checks have fallen by 245,000 in the past three years.

He disclosed the figure in parliament after House of Commons library figures were found to reveal the sexual health budgets of local councils had been slashed by £55.7m since 2013/14.

Shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth said: “These deep cuts are completely short-sighted and will only lead to wider pressures on the NHS in the long term.

“The government can’t be taken seriously on its commitment to prevention while at the same time cutting vital services that provide contraception, tackle sexually transmitted infections and offer crucial support and advice.”

He added that Labour would now use an opposition day motion in parliament to try and force the government to reverse cuts to public health budgets.

Mr Ashworth said: “I will demand that ministers start by reversing these swingeing cuts to public health provision and publish their equality impact assessments so we can see the effects these cuts are having on society.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said the decision on how money was spent on local public health services rested with individual authorities themselves.

He said: “We have a strong track record on sexual health with teenage pregnancies at an all-time low and sexually transmitted infections continuing to fall. Sexual health services and tests are now more widely available online – more than 11,000 diagnoses from online tests were reported last year.”

Public Health England’s most recent figures show some 422,000 STIs were diagnosed in England in 2017, up from 415,000 a decade earlier.