Screening is vital when it comes to women's health. Many lives have been saved by an early diagnosis stemming from the screening programme. The movement towards five-year screening rather than three-year screening undertaken previously was based on evidence. It was the right decision, but it was dealt with in an unacceptable way, with poor communication, a lack of information, and that happens too often when it comes to women's health conditions across Wales. But, of course, Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust emphasises that preventing cervical cancer doesn't begin and end with screening, and there's a lot of work to be done in terms of the patient pathway following diagnosis.

To close, according to Cancer UK, rates of cancer of the uterus in Wales are significantly higher than in the rest of the United Kingdom. Vulval cancer affects around 80 women in Wales every year, requiring specialist and complex treatment. We have no screening procedures for that at all. 

Wales was performing poorly in terms of cancer diagnosis, treatment and survival rates, as I say, long before the COVID pandemic. That is why we on these benches and others have been asking for a cancer plan for many years. Let us today, in the context of women specifically and gynaecological cancer, make that call again. We can't act soon enough when it comes to cancer and the threat to women's lives in Wales.