Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve cervical screening rates among black and minority ethnic women.
The National Cervical Screening programme does not collect data on ethnicity.
The commissioning and provision of screening, outlined in the National Service Specification for cervical screening requires providers to have systems in place to identify and support those persons who may be considered vulnerable/ hard to reach in order to address health inequalities and ensure equity of screening is offered as defined by the Equality Act 2010. The National Service Specification is available to view here:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/serv-spec-25.pdf
Public Health England is working with a range of stakeholders, including local authorities, NHS England and charities to improve uptake of cervical screening.