As we mark Cervical Cancer Prevention Week, I'd like to make a general point at the outset, and that is that girls don't always get taught enough about their bodies—neither do boys, of course. A mix of embarrassment, a lack of understanding, even body shaming, can coalesce from when girls are really quite young, and those factors surely contribute to the fact that one in three women fail to attend their cervical screening appointment when they're invited. We've heard already in the debate about the thousands of women who'll be told every year that they have cervical cell changes, so surely we have to find better ways of talking about these issues and normalising the process of smear tests.

Specifically on this petition, the changes to routine smear tests, it's already been said that they were communicated very poorly, and that did cause avoidable anxiety. The explanation that we have been given by Public Health Wales has set many minds at rest, but since that change was announced I've been contacted by women who are still nervous. I wanted to raise those concerns here so that I could get some constructive answers for them from the Minister. Some constituents have raised the fact—it's already been rehearsed—that a HPV infection can clear within one or two years, meaning that an infection could have cleared by the time a test is taken. Those constituents have queried how someone looking at the results could then know whether the infection has caused cellular changes if they're not looking for those changes. Another constituent was diagnosed with stage 1 cancer at age 30 in 2021 and the cancer was caught during her three-year smear test. She's worried that, had she waited an additional two years, the cancer could have progressed far more and potentially affected her fertility or something far graver.

Now, as I've said, the new test should work very well for most of those who've had the HPV vaccine, which is obviously something to be very much welcomed, because that will have reduced the incidence of abnormal cell changes. Not everyone will have been offered that vaccine, and I know that women, particularly in their 30s, will have missed out on that opportunity because that's true for me as well. So, I'd equally like to hear more about what could be done to put women's minds at rest about that. A further worry felt by some of my constituents concerns women who could develop cervical cancer that isn't linked to HPV. They would presumably be left without screening, so what provision, please, could be made for them? I've raised these concerns in order to get clarity for those constituents who are still feeling uneasy about this change.

Minister, all of this could, of course, have been avoided had a communication gone out before that graphic was shared on social media. I understand of course that lessons will have been learnt about this, but alongside those specific queries I would ask how Public Health Wales will be seeking to combat any sense that could develop of the wrong message being sent to women—that is, that it isn't as important to keep on top of smear tests. I know that that is in no way what's meant by this change, but again a vacuum could develop for the wrong assumptions to be made, unless that vacuum is filled. One constituent said to me that, like visiting the dentist, even if you don't think you need to go, it's important to go, and it's really important that public health messaging doesn't inadvertently discourage women from attending. So, I'd be grateful for any information the Minister could provide in summing up the debate that could alleviate those concerns of my constituents that I've relayed to you. 

But the overwhelming point I would make, just in concluding, Dirprwy Lywydd, is that again we need to make sure that women of all ages get the sense that smear tests are normal, that they're not something to be worried about. When I was in school, they were talked about in this hushed, quite horrified way—not by teachers, I should say, but by other pupils—and I got this impression it was going to be this very painful thing. Actually, for most women, it's totally painless; bit awkward—it needn't be awkward. But I think we need to find ways of countering this narrative, and it comes about because too many of these topics are considered taboo and they're not talked about.