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The Women and Equalities Committee has today urged the Government to increase access of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine for young people including children after warning “significant” numbers are at risk of cervical cancer.

More than a year after it published a report showing sexual health services in the UK were “under severe pressure” because of reduced funding, the cross-party committee said Labour needed to “step up its efforts” to expand provision of the vaccine, which was disrupted by Covid and has since failed to reach large numbers of people.  

In its report in March 2024, the committee cited data from 2022 that showed rates of gonorrhoea, mostly affecting young people, were the highest since records began in 1918. The report also revealed the number of syphilis cases “reached a peak not seen since 1948”.

Sexual health services 'fragmented' and 'complex to navigate'

The committee warned the then Conservative Government that provision of sexual health services was “fragmented across the health system and can be complex to navigate” and urged them to “work with providers and commissioners to improve collaboration across reproductive and sexual healthcare”.

Calling for “a national strategy on sexual health”, the committee urged the Conservatives to “radically increase the public health grant” for local authorities.

With its attention firmly fixed on the current Government, the committee pointed to more recent figures from 2023-24 which revealed uptake of the HPV vaccine decreased further, particularly in the most deprived parts of the country.

“Post-pandemic catch-up activity has only been completed in 62.3 per cent of local authorities,” the committee said. “In some London boroughs, over two-thirds of children are missing out on the vaccine.”

The committee cautioned that although there had been “a slight increase in uptake in the year eight cohort, just 72.9 per cent of female and 67.7 per cent of male year students received the HPV vaccine”.

Pharmacies in England could provide 'catch-up' vaccines

One dose of the HPV vaccine is currently offered to children aged 12 or 13 years through the school aged immunisation programme and vaccines are available to people who have not received their dose until they turn 25 via their GP.

Sexual health services offer HPV vaccines for at-risk groups including gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men.

Last month, NHS England, who said HPV causes more than 99 per cent of cervical cancer cases, suggested pharmacies in England could provide “catch-up” vaccines in its plan to eliminate cervical cancer by a revised timeframe of 2040.

Warning uptake had fallen “far short of the NHS target of 90 per cent coverage by 2030”, the committee said: “It is a tragedy that not all children are receiving the vaccine”.

“The HPV vaccine is a remarkable step forwards in preventing HPV infection and the serious consequences that can result from it,” it said.

“The Government must step up its efforts to increase take up of the HPV vaccine, including as a first step, by targeting the cohort of children who may have missed out on vaccination during the Covid–19 pandemic.

“Given the significant proportion of children who have not received the vaccine and the potential benefits the vaccine can have in treating HPV, we recommend that sexual health services be able to deliver the vaccine to all those who would benefit from receiving it.”