Department of Health and Social Care written question – answered at on 19 June 2026.
Dr Caroline Johnson
Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce incidence of syphilis.
Sharon Hodgson
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care
The UK Health Security Agency published a national Syphilis Response Plan in March 2026, which is available at the following link:
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.
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