Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to paragraph 5.26 of his Department's report, An Intelligence Framework for Cancer published in December 2011, what discussions he has had with Public Health England on funding a new database to support the introduction of Primary HPV screening through a single national screening database.

Information technology to support cervical screening and the potential introduction of primary human papillomavirus (HPV) screening will be discussed at the next meeting of the Advisory Committee on Cervical Screening (ACCS) on 12 February 2015. Public Health England (PHE) will be made aware of any ACCS recommendations resulting from the meeting.

In April 2014 the UK National Screening Committee gave its support for a pilot to assess the value of using 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 pilot programme was developed by PHE and advised by the Advisory Committee on Cervical Screening. The pilot sites, which began in May 2013, are: Liverpool, Manchester, Northwick Park (Harrow), Bristol, Sheffield and Norwich. The first evaluation report is due in spring 2015.