Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Answer of 1 July 2016 to Question 40774, what steps his Department is taking to improve cervical screening rates among women with a learning disability.

The National Cervical Screening programme does not collect data on ethnicity however recognises that through the introduction of the human papillomavirus immunisation, all sections of society should be able to benefit from the positive impact of immunisation.

Public Health England (PHE) and its partners are carrying out a range of activities which will promote a clearer understanding of why uptake is different amongst various groups and also hopefully improve uptake. These activities include:

- Gathering, synthesising and producing more evidence to inform and change practice;

- Data and information – access to data, cleansing, benchmarking for providers, timely and useful information for commissioners;

- Behavioural insight – communication with commissioners, providers, patients and public;

- Commissioning levers – commissioning contracts in public health (S7a) and primary care, inclusion of work to increase uptake and decease inequalities in Section 7a specifications;

- Partnership work – relationships with commissioners and providers, working with the charities to understand and improve access and awareness; and

- Sharing best practice – what works well, evaluation and how to embed quality improvement.

PHE continues to support providers to help meet the Accessible Information Standard through the provision of high quality information for people with learning disabilities or sensory loss. Publication of the easy read leaflets for cervical screening is available at the gov.uk website.