Guidance

Cervical screening: removing people from routine invitations

How programme staff can stop invitations to people who do not require cervical screening.

• From: NHS England
• Published: 1 February 2004
• Last updated: 25 August 2026
  Show all updates

  1. 25 August 2026

     Updated to reflect new HPV sample taker training guidance

  2. 9 July 2025

     Rewording of sentence in section 2.2 to reflect extension of screening interval to 5 years.

  3. 16 April 2025

     Clarified that this guidance is for the NHS in England. Removed references to PHE and PHE gateway reference number. Colposcopy discharge updates.

  4. 27 September 2024

     In the details, changed 'originally published by Public Health England' to 'previously published by Public Health England'.

  5. 26 September 2024

     Added clarification that publication was originally published by Public Health England.

  6. 20 September 2019

     Guidance document revised and updated.

  7. 1 February 2004

     First published.

Applies to England

Documents

Ceasing and deferring people from the NHS Cervical Screening Programme

HTML

Details

Healthcare professionals should use this process to stop invitation letters being sent to women who no longer require cervical screening for medical reasons or personal choice.