Cervical Screening

Dear constituent,

Thank you for contacting me about cervical cancer and the ‘Screen on Demand’ campaign led by the trade union Unison. I agree with you that any woman who presents to their GP with cervical cancer symptoms, regardless of age, should be offered screening.

Around 3,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year in the UK. I sympathise profoundly with anyone who is affected. While it is very rare in women under 25, it remains the most common cancer among young women.

Progress has been made in reducing cervical cancer incidence rates and deaths have fallen by around 60% since the national cervical screening programme was launched in 1988. However, there is more that can be done to improve early diagnosis.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) advises the Government and the NHS about all aspects of screening policy. It recommends that the age of the first invitation for cervical screening should be 25. This is based on evidence that screening women under the age of 25 has relatively little benefit, with screening doing more harm than good.

I fully sympathise with calls for more screenings. Any lives saved strengthen that case. But I believe it is right that this decision is made by experts on the UK NSC and not by politicians.

In line with clinical evidence, I agree that the age for cervical smear tests should remain at 25. However, this must be on the condition of continuing research, and tests must be offered to those under 25 who present with symptoms. Young women should not be excluded from a valuable screening service just because of their age if they have symptoms.

Beyond that, the Government must do more to increase take-up and ensure that women who are eligible for a cervical smear test attend their appointments when they are invited or as soon as possible thereafter. Ministers must also ensure that preventative measures, such as the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination to girls in secondary schools, are taken up as fully as possible.

More widely, I remain concerned that cancer pathways, including screening, have been affected by the pandemic. I urge the Government to bring forward a fully resourced plan to enable our health service to deal with the backlog of unmet clinical need and restore screening services to full capacity.

Thank you once again for contacting me about this important issue.

Yours Sincerely,

Peter Dowd MP