MS, Cabinet Secretary for
Health and Social Care: As part of the Senedd Health and Social
Care Committee's inquiry about gynaecological cancer, I committed
to providing an update about progress towards meeting targets for
HPV vaccination, cervical screening, and cervical cancer
treatment.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has set a target of 90%
uptake for HPV vaccination. Before the pandemic, take-up of the
HPV vaccination – which helps prevent a range of cancers,
including cervical cancer, and genital warts – was close to this
target. However, take-up has fallen post-pandemic.
Health board vaccination teams have made significant efforts to
increase uptake, including targeting schools where coverage is
lower – more than 1,400 additional HPV vaccines were given in
2025. Public Health Wales (PHW) has developed a survey for young
people and their parents to help identify views about
vaccinations and the barriers to attending routine appointments.
It has also developed a comprehensive communications plan
highlighting the benefits of HPV vaccination. Further
school-based catch-up exercises are planned over the next 12
months.
Cervical screening, which looks for high-risk strains of HPV, is
an important preventative intervention. PHW continually looks for
ways to improve uptake in the national screening programmes,
particularly in groups where uptake is low. Through its
Screening Equity Strategy, it aims to reduce screening
inequalities by enabling those who are eligible for screening to
have equal access and the opportunity to participate in
screening.
Cervical Screening Wales is currently considering the model for
at-home, self-collected screening samples. This will roll-out
later this year and will be aimed at women who rarely or never
take up their offer of screening.
At-home screening is designed to reduce barriers to participation
in screening and enable those who currently have difficulty
accessing screening to engage with the programme. It is hoped it
will increase uptake in under-screened groups, reducing
inequalities and support progress towards the WHO cervical cancer
elimination targets by increasing cervical screening coverage.
The latest figures on cervical cancer incidence and mortality
show the combination of screening and awareness is helping to
reduce the number of new cases from an average of 164 per year in
2002-04 to an average of 149 in 2020-22. The incidence rate has
also fallen from 10.8 to 9.4 per 100,000 people.
The number of deaths per year has fallen from an average of 61
(2002-04) to 54 (2002-22), and the European age standardised
mortality rate per 100,000 people has fallen from 4.1 to 3.2 over
the same period. These figures show long-term improvement in
incidence and mortality for cervical cancer, although there is
still more to do and we hope vaccination will prevent more cases
of cervical cancer in the future.
Cervical cancer is classed as gynaecological cancer for the
purposes of reporting the number of women who start first
definitive treatment within 62-days. However, the NHS is working
towards reporting performance against the 62-day target for the
different types of gynaecological cancers by April 2027. The NHS
will use the next 12 months to change clinical systems to enable
health boards to accurately capture data about sub-cancer type
for completed pathways of care.
Our approach to improving cancer treatment and survival includes
a comprehensive set of actions, including prevention, early
detection, and timely access to high-quality treatment.
We encourage everyone who is eligible to take up their offer of
HPV vaccination or cervical screening. In the years ahead,
continuing to improve access to treatment, vaccination and
screening will improve outcomes for women throughout Wales.
