High street pharmacies will soon be offering free screening for Britain's most common sexually transmitted disease under a scheme being piloted in two areas of the country, the government announced today.

Cases of chlamydia, often called the silent infection because sometimes there are no symptoms, have soared in recent years. In 2003, there were nearly 90,000 cases of chlamydia diagnosed in England, Wales and Northern Ireland - up 9% in just a year.

The Department of Health said today it was inviting independent healthcare providers to submit bids to pilot chlamydia screening in community pharmacists in London and Cornwall. If successful, the scheme could be rolled out across England in the future.

The aim of the plans is to make it easier for those most at risk to be screened for chlamydia.

The successful bidders will provide free chlamydia screening for 16 to 24-year-olds, and they may also offer patients the choice of receiving treatment with antibiotics at their local pharmacy.

Boots has been piloting free chlamydia testing at two of its stores in the Wirral, Merseyside, since last April, with plans to extend it to another store in Crewe in Cheshire at the end of the month.

The new pilots planned by the Department of Health will be monitored and evaluated over two years to see how effective pharmacies are in providing an alternative route to chlamydia screening.

The national chlamydia screening programme, operating in 26 parts of England, already offers testing at a number of sites, including colleges, armed forces bases and prisons.

If untreated, chlamydia can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and infertility.

The public health minister, Melanie Johnson, said: "It's vital that we make it easier for young men and women to get tested for chlamydia.

"By offering this service in convenient locations on the high street, it will make it easier for people to call in for a screening test - helping to speed up the detection and treatment of chlamydia cases," she said.

"The advantage of using independent sector providers, such as pharmacists, is that they are already in position on the high street to provide NHS quality chlamydia testing.

"This means costs to the taxpayer are kept down and we won't need to draw on staff from other areas of the NHS."