Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans the Government has to fund and run national awareness campaigns on cervical cancer prevention.

Public Health England’s (PHE) ‘Be Clear on Cancer’ campaigns aim to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of specific cancers, and to encourage those with symptoms to see their doctor promptly. The decision on which cancers should be the focus of ‘Be Clear on Cancer’ campaigns is informed by a steering group, whose members include primary and secondary care clinicians, and key voluntary sector organisations.

PHE is currently developing a generic approach which will enable us to cover a range of symptoms in one campaign. A regional pilot campaign to raise awareness of a range of abdominal symptoms that can indicate a wider number of cancers, including cervical, and the need to visit the doctor promptly with these symptoms will run from 9 February until 31 March 2017 in the East and West Midlands. This work has been developed with the help of a number of experts, including clinicians and charities.

As usual, the regional pilot will be evaluated and results will help inform decisions about whether to expand this campaign nationally in the future.