Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether HPV self-sampling will be less frequently than clinician screening, in the context of uncertainties in relation to the accuracy of the self-sampling test.

The frequency of human papilloma virus (HPV) self-sampling will be the same as the frequency of clinician-led cervical screening. The home kits will only be offered to people who have missed their cervical screening appointment by six months or more. The next stage in the pathway for anyone who tests positive for HPV via self-sampling would be an appointment for a clinician-taken test.

Following the announcement to introduce HPV self-sampling in the National Health Service cervical screening programme for the under-screened population, the NHS has begun planning an in-service evaluation (ISE) of HPV self-sampling in the wider population.

The purpose of the ISE is to ensure that the self-sampling test is acceptable, accurate, and feasible compared with a clinician collected specimen, and to evaluate its impact on cervical screening uptake. The findings of the ISE will inform any future UK National Screening Committee recommendation to ministers to offer self-sampling across the whole population, alongside clinician-led screening.