Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies on tackling inequalities in access to cervical screening of the report by Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust entitled Computer says no, published in June 2018.

All women should have timely and convenient access to cervical screening. Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services traditionally offer and undertake both routine and opportunistic cervical cancer screening. These services accommodate a high risk cohort of women, which include those who are unlikely to access the screening programme via their general practitioner (GP), and women who are not registered with a GP.

In tackling inequalities in access to cervical screening within SRH, NHS England local teams have worked with local authorities and sexual health providers to negotiate the continuation of opportunistic cervical screening over the last five years, and have committed to review the commissioning of this before the end of summer. NHS England will work with Public Health England and an expert group of stakeholders to explore what more can be done in terms of providing national guidance and case studies, and the development of an inequalities toolkit for screening to maximise uptake of screening amongst vulnerable groups.