Cervical Screening Programme, England - 2021-2022 [NS]

Call & recall

In 2021-2022

Coverage for ages 25 to 64 years was 69.9%
 

Cervical screening

In 2021-2022:

3.53 million samples were tested.
(all ages)

Colposcopy

In 2021-2022:

235,223 individuals were referred for colposcopy
(all ages)

This publication presents information about the NHS Cervical Screening Programme (‘the programme’) in England in the year 2021-2022.

Individuals between the ages of 25* and 64 are invited for regular cervical screening under the programme, the intent of which is to detect abnormalities within the cervix that could, if undetected and untreated, develop into cervical cancer.  Individuals outside of this age group may also be assessed by the programme if they require follow-up testing after previous abnormal screening, or if they had not had an adequate test since their 60th birthday.

The statistics presented cover the following topic areas in the cervical screening programme:

• Call and recall
• Cervical cytology
• Colposcopy

The associated data tables, interactive visualisation, appendices and quality statement are available on the main publication page:

https://digital.nhs.uk/pubs/cervical2022

*Invitations are first sent at age 24.5 years.

Report bulletin (this document)

• Presents a detailed summary of the findings from the 2021-2022 data collection.
• Further information on the data presented within this report is available in the additional publication resources outlined here.

Interactive dashboard

• The main report is accompanied by an interactive data dashboard. Data are presented in maps and charts. This allows comparison between areas as well as showing changes over time.
• The geographic breakdowns included in the dashboard are upper tier local authority, region and country.

http://bit.ly/Cervical_Stats_Dashboard

Data tables

• Contain all relevant statistics for 2021-2022.
• Available in Excel and csv formats.

Appendices

Further detail on topics including:

• Publication context
• Coverage definitions
• Changes to the programme
• Data collection

Quality statement:

• Contextual information to aid understanding and presentation of the data including the methods used to compile the statistics and other background information that users may find useful.
• All resources are available from the publication page. 

HPV primary screening

Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) primary screening was fully implemented in December 2019¹. With HPV primary screening, a sample is first tested for high risk types of HPV (hrHPV) associated with the development of cervical cancer. Where the test result is positive, a cytology assessment is then performed on the same sample. See appendix J for further details.

This is the second year that all data collected is based on HPV primary screening. Activity may therefore be different to previous years.

Following implementation of HPV primary screening, it is expected that there will be an increase in 12 month repeat invitations and additional referrals to colposcopy.

Result categories (KC65)
From 2020-2021 onwards, the following definitions are true:

• 'Inadequate' represents hrHPV unavailable and / or cytology inadequate.
• Other: includes 'hrHPV positive, cytology negative'.

See Appendices for full definitions.

COVID-19 and the production of statistics

Disruption from the coronavirus pandemic had minimal effect on the data collection during 2020-21 and 2021-22, most screening services continued to submit data returns and data continued to be available directly from the call and recall IT system.

Due to COVID-19 measures, attendance for screening was less than usual in the early part of 2020-21. Screening and referral of those individuals considered to be at highest risk of a significant cervical abnormality was prioritised during this period and continued to take place.  From the summer of 2020, the NHS cervical screening programme began restoring and higher than normal levels of screening tests were seen. Increases in activity in 2021-22 may include catch-up activity following COVID-19 disruption. 

Increases in activity in 2021-22 will be influenced by increases in the eligible population, increased surveillance invitations and referrals to colposcopy (resulting from the implementation of HPV primary screening) and potential catch-up activity following COVID-19 disruption in the previous year.

In 2021-22, test statistics will include data for tests taken as self samples as part of the London based YouScreen study

¹ https://phescreening.blog.gov.uk/2020/01/23/significant-landmark-as-primary-hpv-screening-is-offered-across-england/

² https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cervical-screening-primary-hpv-screening-implementation/cervical-screening-implementation-guide-for-primary-hpv-screening