Sharon Hodgson responds to report on STIs and sexual health provision

EMBARGOED until 0001hrs Wednesday 5th February

Sharon Hodgson MP, Labour’s Shadow Public Health Minister, responding to a report on STIs and sexual health provision in England, said:

“With incidences of sexually transmitted infection diagnoses increasing at a time when sexual health services are buckling under the pressure of budget cuts and increasing demand, it is time for the Government to take serious action on prevention. 

“It is unacceptable that Local Authorities are still waiting for their allocation of the Public Health grant, two months after it was expected to be allocated.

“The Government must reverse the cuts to the public health grant, invest in sexual health services and work with charities such as the Terrence Higgins Trust and BASHH to implement a sexual health strategy that treats the sexual health of the nation with the urgency it deserves.”

Ends

Notes to Editors

• The Terrence Higgins Trust and the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV have jointly released a report today (Wednesday) titled ‘Sexually Transmitted Infections in England: The State of the Nation’