Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health of 1 May 2014, Official Report, column 1052, on cervical cancer screening, what steps his Department has taken to modernise the NHS cervical cancer screening programme; what progress has been made by Public Health England on addressing low coverage of cervical cancer screening in certain areas and working on local action plans to improve such coverage; and what work his Department has carried out with employers to encourage them to make it clear to young women that they will facilitate them taking time off for cervical cancer screening.

As I said in the debate on 1 May 2014, Official Report, column 1052, if hon. and Rt. hon. Members indicated that they would want to initiate a Parliamentary event on cervical screening and the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination, I would be happy to support it. Although, to date, I have received no specific representations from any hon. or Rt. hon. Members, I remain happy to support such an event.

In April 2012 the UK National Screening Committee (UKNSC) gave its support for a pilot to assess the value of using HPV testing as primary screening (HPV TaPS) for cervical disease, rather than the currently used cytology test. The pilot is establishing the feasibility of using HPV testing as the primary screen for cervical disease in order to achieve better outcomes for women, while minimising over-treatment and anxiety, and whether it is practical to roll out nationally. The UK NSC will open a public consultation shortly on whether HPV TaPS for cervical disease should replace the currently used cytology test.

Public Health England (PHE) continues to work with NHS England via the Public Health Section 7A agreement to develop a system of performance improvement through the use of performance floors, and strengthened governance for screening. The aims of the performance floors are:

- Improving performance and equity of service over time by reducing the range of variation at a local level.

- Enabling easy identification of poor performance and the setting of objectives and plans for local action, to reduce variation and improve performance.

PHE will look at research provided by the STRATEGIC study (Strategies to increase cervical screening uptake at first invitation) to identify methods to help increase uptake among women. The STRATEGIC study will be publishing findings in May 2016, more details of this can be found at:

http://www.nets.nihr.ac.uk/projects/hta/0916401

The Responsibility Deal Health at Work Network has worked with employers to develop the Staff Health Checks pledge, which encourages eligible employees to participate in NHS Health, and other NHS screening programmes. 160 employers have signed up to this pledge.