Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the capacity of NHS pathology laboratories to process returned HPV self-testing kits in a timely manner; and what target turnaround time has been set from a sample being posted to the individual receiving their results.

I refer the Hon Member to the press release issued by NHS England setting out the objectives of the self-testing rollout, and to the impact assessments carried out to inform the development of this policy, all of which are available at the following links:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/2026/08/nhs-rolls-out-discreet-home-testing-kits-against-cervical-cancer-for-millions-of-women/

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cervical-screening-hpv-self-sampling-impact-assessments