Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has considered providing self-sampling cervical screening kits to all women.

Following the announcement to introduce human papillomavirus (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 as accurate at detecting HPV as 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.