§ Mrs. GillanTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what his Department is doing(a) to reduce the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases among young people and (b) to discourage young people from embarking on early sexual relationships. [136572]
§ Miss Melanie Johnson[holding answer 5 November 2003]The Government's National Strategy for Sexual Health and HIV (2001), which recognises that young people are one of the groups disproportionately affected by poor sexual health, aims to reduce the transmission of all sexually transmitted infections.
The implementation of the strategy includes specific actions targeting young people, for example, the launch last year of a national safer sex campaign, 'The Sex Lottery', for young adults to raise awareness of sexual health and promote safer sex, and initiatives within the national chlamydia screening programme to increase rates of diagnoses and treatment of chlamydia amongst young people—the group most affected by this disease.
The Government's Teenage Pregnancy Strategy (1999) encompasses a multi-faceted approach to help young people resist peer pressure to have early sex, improve sex and relationship education, increase access to effective contraception and sexual health services and support parents in talking to their children about sex and relationship issues.