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Scottish Cervical Screening Programme Statistics

This dataset provides annual cervical screening statistics in Scotland, including information on coverage and uptake by NHS Health Board of Residence, deprivation and age. In addition, data are presented on laboratory services including the percentage of samples reported within two weeks and the percentage of tests rejected NHS Health Board of Residence.

From 2016/17 the eligible age for cervical screening is 25-64. Historically, women aged 25-49 have been invited to attend cervical screening every three years and those aged 50-64 every five. From March 2020, women aged 25-64 are invited every five years. The five-year recall for younger women will be implemented to the KPI analysis in 2025/26, to allow screening participant to move to the new recall interval. The routine interval for those aged 50-64 years remained unchanged at five years.

On 30 March 2020, Human papillomavirus (HPV) testing replaced cervical cytology as the primary (first) cervical screening test. Cytology based tests are still used but only when HPV is found or if someone has previously had cell changes.

Further information on cervical screening in Scotland can be found in the most recent annual publication. The date of the next release can be found on our list of forthcoming publications.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Source Scottish Cervical Call Recall System (SCCRS)
Author PHS Adult Screening Team
Maintainer Theresa Ryan
Last Updated February 24, 2026, 11:21 (GMT)
Created May 28, 2020, 13:25 (BST)
Contact Address Public Health Scotland, Gyle Square, 1 South Gyle Crescent, Edinburgh, EH12 9EB
Subject Conditions and Diseases
Frequency Annual
Time frame of data and timeliness Data up to financial year ending 31 March 2025
Coverage Covers statistics back to 2007/08. No data for NHS Borders, NHS Dumfries & Galloway and Island Boards due to no laboratories processing tests in these boards.
Completeness At time of extraction, data for the most recent year are estimated to be accurate.
Accuracy Cervical Screening data are subject to quality assurance procedures. Reported data are compared to previous years' figures and to expected trends.
Continuity of data Coverage (eligible women who have had a previous screening encounter, smear test taken within the previous 3.5 or 5.5 year) by NHS Health Board of Residence, deprivation (SIMD) and age groups are reported for financial years 2016/17 to 2024/25.
Concepts and definitions Coverage is defined as the percentage of women and anyone with a cervix in a population eligible for screening at a given point in time who have had a cervical screening encounter within the specified period (note: this definition was called 'uptake' in previous publications but will now be described as 'coverage' to be consistent with other countries). For the total target age group (25 to 64 years), ‘age-appropriate coverage’ defines coverage as the percentage of those in the population eligible for cervical screening who have attended within the previous 3.5 years for ages 25-49 and 5.5 years for ages 50-64. Note that the additional 0.5 year provides a window to allow for the screening appointment to have been arranged and taken place after the invitation or reminder letter was sent. Uptake is defined as the percentage of those invited for screening who have had a cervical screening encounter within six months (183 days) of their invitation or reminder letter.
Disclosure The PHS protocol on Statistical Disclosure Protocol is followed.
Revision statement Due to data quality issues and errors with archived coverage statistics from 1997/98 to 2015/16, the archived file has been removed from open data. If you have any questions, please contact PHS.adultscreening@phs.scot.
Official statistics designation Official Statistics in development. Public Health Scotland (PHS) previously released Scottish cervical screening programme statistics as Accredited Official Statistics (previously known as National Statistics). PHS requested a temporary suspension due to methodological changes and errors with the previous data. Correspondence with the Office for Statistics Regulation and details of this decision can be found on the [PHS website](https://publichealthscotland.scot/about-us/who-we-are/about-our-statistics/overview/correspondence-with-the-statistics-regulator/)
Relevance and key uses of the statistics PHS's Scottish Cervical Screening Programme statistics are designed for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the Scottish Cervical Screening
Format csv
Language English
Links

"Cervical Screening in England; Cervical Screening in Wales;

Cervical Screening in Northern Ireland"