Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the uptake of smear tests.

To support improving access and uptake of the NHS Cervical Screening Programme, the National Health Service has a series of initiatives underway, including:

• developing a digital-first approach to cervical screening invitations and reminders;
• introducing revised invitation correspondence, and a subsequent reminder letter, that is sent at 24.5 years old to specifically highlight the need to attend cervical screening, even if they have had the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination, and raise awareness of HPV vaccine catch-up offers, for those up to 25 years old;
• using the new IT system, the Cervical Screening Management System, to enable an opt-in process for transgender and non-binary people’s screening invitations, to ensure that no-one eligible misses the opportunity to be invited and participate;
• expanding the of the range of accessible public information materials across all screening programmes, and continuing to highlight the importance of screening within our regular equalities-focused communications and engagement;
• developing an agile cervical screening workforce that can respond to fluctuations in demand through workforce planning, accounting for potential future changes to screening offers, directed by the UK National Screening Committee;
• identifying low-cost or no-cost opportunities to communicate the NHS’s aim to eliminate cervical cancer by 2040, highlighting the value of cervical screening and the HPV vaccination as fundamental to achieving this goal; and
• The UK National Screening Committee’s consideration of whether the introduction of self-sampling for non-attenders to the cervical screening programme may increase uptake.