Question reference: S5W-35673
- Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 2 March 2021
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Current status: Answered by Mairi Gougeon on 5 March 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has for HPV self-test kits to be provided nationally.
Answer
There are no plans to issue HPV self-testing kits nationally at this time. This is because the UK National Screening Committee (NSC) has not yet recommended that self-sampling should be incorporated into the cervical screening programme. It continues to gather and evaluate the evidence on this matter, and it is not possible to say when this will be complete. However, Scotland is playing an active part in supporting this work, and will also begin taking the necessary steps to ensure that we can roll it out as soon as possible once a recommendation is made. At all times, ensuring patient safety will remain key, and we will not act until we are assured it is safe to do so.
A pilot is currently being carried out by NHS Dumfries and Galloway which involves sending all screening participants aged 25-64 years of age who have never attended for cervical screening or who have defaulted on their most recent appointment a self-sampling kit. Findings from this pilot will inform our work going forward.
Plans in early 2020 to establish a Working Group to lead a wider project to contribute to this evidence base had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, these plans are now progressing, and the working group convened for the first time in February 2021. Their remit will be to develop a work programme that will ensure a range of evidence on different self-sampling use cases, so it can be gathered and evaluated, to understand what changes will be needed to the current programme to allow widespread roll-out in the future.