Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant?to the Answer of 30 January 2020 to Question 7625 on Cervical Cancer: Screening, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the recommendation on self-test cervical cancer screening contained in the review of adult screening programmes in England published in October 2019.

The United Kingdom National Screening Committee (UK NSC) reviewed the evidence on the use of human papillomavirus (HPV) self-sampling as a programme modification within the NHS Cervical Screening Programme at its meeting in February 2019. The Committee recognised that HPV self-sampling offered a promising test but that further work was required to ensure its feasibility and value in the current screening programme. Minutes of the UK NSC’s meeting can be viewed at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/uk-national-screening-committee-uk-nsc

Public Heath England is now in the early stages of planning for a formal evaluation of HPV self-sampling as a primary test in the national cervical screening programme. The aim of this evaluation is to address key questions from the UK NSC external review of HPV self-sampling, published in 2017.