§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether in the light of recent studies of breast cancer screening and cervical smear screening, which show these procedures to be of somewhat dubious medical value, they will re-examine the national breast cancer screening programme and their requirement that general practitioners should seek to carry out cervical smears on as many as possible of their female patients.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Baroness Hooper)The aim of the breast and cervical screening programmes is to reduce mortality from these diseases. We believe they will be extremely beneficial and effective in promoting the health of women in this country. Research has demonstrated that screening women aged 50 years and over by mammography every three years should eventually reduce mortality from breast cancer by up to one third and that among women aged 20 to 64 years who have a smear test performed every five years mortality from cervical cancer can be reduced by over 80 per cent.