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“With resources already stretched, there is a real risk of waiting times increasing and patient experience deteriorating"

"Radical action is needed in the Government’s impending green paper on prevention, to truly help address the access to contraception and tackle the growing threat of sexually transmitted infections such as syphilis and gonorrhoea."

LGA responds to Public Health England’s annual sexually transmitted infections (STI) data for 2020, which show a decline in the number of people attending and testing positive for STIs.

Cllr Izzi Seccombe, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, responds to the latest NHS Digital figures on the number of adult smokers.

“Council public health teams work hard to help reduce smoking rates in their areas, alongside local charities and community groups, and it is testament to their efforts that smoking rates continue to fall."

“Councils, which are responsible for public health, run a range of innovative programmes to help people quit smoking and have taken great strides in helping people to stub out tobacco for good."

Cllr Ian Hudspeth, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, responds to the latest official suicides statistics, for 2018.

“Rising coronavirus cases across the country mean that we all now, more than ever, have a responsibility to get ourselves tested when needed and for sharing our contacts on request.

"Councils’ public health teams are using their unique expertise and understanding of their communities to reach those who cannot be contacted by the NHS Test and Trace system, including speaking other languages. These figures show they are having much more success at reaching complex close contacts of positive cases."

"Everybody has to play their part in helping to get this pandemic under control. It is good that the NHS Test and Trace system is reaching the majority of those who tested positive and who are passing on details of their close contacts, but it is still concerning that nearly 20 per cent of positive cases cannot be found."