An MP has urged the government to make a vaccine that can prevent several cancers and genital warts available for teenage boys on the NHS.

Since 2008, the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has been offered to girls in order to protect them from cervical cancer.

But it is not given to boys despite the fact it is also linked to cancers of the throat and male genitalia.

North Thanet MP Sir Roger Gale has secured a 90-minute debate in Parliament tomorrow on the issue.

Sir Roger said: “I regard this as short-termism at its worst. Every year some two thousand males in their fifties or sixties develop HPV-related throat, penile and anal cancers from infections contracted in youth.

“Because the HPV-related diseases in men are ‘slow burn’ it is easy for the health service to kick this necessary expenditure into the long grass but this flies in the face of the department’s own prevention strategy.

“We invest in the reduction of smoking-related and sunshine exposure cancers but continue to neglect a specific scheme to prevent cancers that are on the increase and that is available.”

Schoolgirls tend to be offered the vaccine in Year 8 and then a second dose six to 12 months afterwards.

There is a range of types of HPV, with some linked to cancers and others known to cause conditions like warts and verrucas. The virus is common and can be sexually transmitted.

In March health experts said a rise in oral sex had in part contributed to the spread of HPV and a considerable increase in neck and head cancers.

“The cost of treatment is about £22 million a year. The cost of vaccines and delivery would currently be in the region of £21 million,” the veteran North Thanet MP added.

“That equation ignores, though, the social costs and the further treatment of HPV-related genital warts, which develop within three or four years of infection, at an additional annual £58 million.”

Sir Roger has secured a 90-minute debate on the provision of the vaccine to adolescent boys in Westminster Hall tomorrow morning.

The Joint Council for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the government’s vaccination advisory committee, is due to consider the issue at the beginning of June.

“This debate is based upon health-related, rather than equality issues, and will seek to persuade ministers to call on the JCVI to act and to recognise the need for a long-term approach to the high costs of neglecting HPV-related infections in young men,” Sir Roger explained.