Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the level of cervical screening uptake is in Wolverhampton Clinical Commissioning Group; what steps his Department is taking to increase cervical screening uptake among women in Wolverhampton; and if he will make a statement.

Cervical screening data is provided at local authority level and is published by Public Health England (PHE).

The percentage of women in the resident population of Wolverhampton who are eligible for cervical screening who were screened adequately within the previous 3.5 years or 5.5 years according to age (3.5 years for women aged 25-49 and 5.5 years for women aged 50-64) on 31 March is 68.1%.

Cervical screening is commissioned by NHS England and is based upon a national service specification developed by PHE. NHS England closely monitors the coverage rates for cervical screening in all age groups and is committed to improving coverage and reducing variation between all age groups. In Wolverhampton, NHS England is working with local sexual health services to improve access for women who wish to access the cervical screening programme outside of general practice. PHE and NHS England are also working with general practices with lowest levels of uptake to understand barriers and mechanisms for improvement.

The human papillomavirus (HPV) adolescent vaccination programme for girls is well established in the United Kingdom and is expected to have a significant impact on reducing cervical cancer. Since the start of the programme in 2008, more than 8.5 million doses of the HPV vaccine have been given in the UK, with close to 90% of eligible teenagers vaccinated.