Rejected petition: Keep cervical screening every 3 years – don’t extend it to 5 years
Rejected on
Maintain 3-yearly cervical screening for women aged 25–49, even if they test HPV-negative. Do not extend the interval to 5 years. Retain both HPV and cytology tests, improve public education, and ensure informed consent before any screening changes.
Extending screening to 5 years risks delayed detection of cervical cancer. While HPV testing is more sensitive, false negatives can occur, and some cancers progress rapidly, especially in younger women. A UK study found nearly half of women oppose longer intervals (Marlow et al., 2019). Three-yearly screening has significantly reduced cervical cancer rates—extending the interval could reverse decades of progress in early detection and survival.
Why was this petition rejected?
There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.
You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.
You may wish to sign this petition which calls for a similar action: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/729981
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.