2. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:30 pm on 5 November 2019.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 2:30, 5 November 2019

Thank you very much to Jenny Rathbone for raising this particularly important issue this afternoon. I think that we do have a good story to tell here in Wales in terms of the work that we've been doing thus far, because, of course, Wales is the only UK nation to have implemented HPV testing for participants in the cervical screening programme, and the programme now tests for 14 high-risk HPV types, and those are the ones that cause 99.8 per cent of cervical cancers. And this is a much more sensitive test and will prevent more cancers, and it's hoped that the new test will improve uptake over time. 

But the health Minister issued a written statement earlier this year saying that self-testing won't be rolled out across Wales or the rest of the UK until the pilot in England has been shown to be safe and effective and has been recommended by the UK National Screening Committee. But, obviously, we're really keen to watch the progress of that and to understand the evaluation of that pilot. I'll explore what the timescales are for that pilot with the health Minister and ensure that you have an update as to what kind of timescale we might be looking at for the completion of the programme and the evaluation.FootnoteLink