Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of using mRNA-based HPV tests in primary cervical cancer screening.

The National Cervical Screening Programme uses both deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) based human papillomavirus (HPV) testing in the programme.

Laboratories can choose to use either the DNA or RNA HPV testing methods as both are approved.

The United Kingdom National Screening Committee has received a proposal to consider the use of digital pathology in the cancer screening programmes and work to assess this is under way.