Debate contribution: Cervical Screening Scandal Inquiry

Debate contribution by Mrs Diane Dodds on 3 November 2025.

MLA

Mrs Diane Dodds

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

3 November 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Cervical Screening Scandal Inquiry

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5213592

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move the following amendment:

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I thank the Members who tabled the motion. I hope that all parties in the House will support the motion and the amendment. It is important that we have cross-community and cross-party support on the issue. When I speak to those who have been impacted by the cervical screening scandal in the Southern Health and Social Care Trust, they all say the same thing: "This should never happen again". That is why it is important to understand what is happening with the Northern Ireland screening programme that is now run by the Belfast Trust. There is a clear need for transparency and answers in the House for women throughout Northern Ireland. Minister, I hope that you will be able to provide those answers today. Women in Northern Ireland deserve full transparency and a cervical screening programme in which they can have full confidence.

I first spoke about the scandal of the Southern Trust's screening programme at the start of devolution in 2024, shortly after the trust had recalled 17,500 tests for review. Since then, I have been privileged to speak to many of those who have been impacted on. Today, like others, I want to acknowledge Lynsey Courtney and Erin Harbinson, both of whom were diagnosed with cervical cancer and are no longer with us. Children have been left without mothers, husbands without their wives and parents without their daughters. They need answers. Then there are those who have developed and are living with cervical cancer and have had to endure those very invasive procedures. They have had their lives turned upside down. They have endured worry and stress alongside a difficult diagnosis. They, too, deserve answers, Minister. I also want to acknowledge a very tenacious group of women whom I have had the pleasure to work alongside. The Ladies with Letters group has been a support to those who need it, but it has also been willing to question the narrative and spend time creating a campaign that has highlighted this injustice. It wants a statutory public inquiry to uncover the truth and make sure that this can never happen again. We support that call, and I hope that the Minister can give us answers today. We also owe a huge debt of gratitude to the very courageous whistle-blower who, when he came into post, saw the problem and took action. His actions saved lives. He risked his own position in order to uncover a very great harm. The trust should reflect on his subsequent treatment. Whistle-blowers need protection and, in this case, commendation. At the heart of the scandal is a real lack of transparency, accountability and responsibility in health service delivery. The Southern Trust recalled 17,500 smear tests dating back to 2008. During that time, some screeners from the Southern Trust were underperforming in relation to those smear tests. Those screeners, some of whom were underperforming at a very substantial rate, were not sufficiently managed, nor was their performance monitored. Looking back at that, it now seems unfathomable that trust arrangements for the monitoring and performance of screeners were not robust. It seems absurd that trust managers could find a colleague's annual performance to be inadequate but not want to know how that compared with previous years. It is quite simply extraordinary that when those who were found to be failing were provided with extra training, no one seems to have checked whether that made any difference to their work. It turns out that some were still not achieving adequate standards even after receiving additional support. That is a whole-system failure — a failure not just of the screeners but of the managers and supervisors who failed to recognise the problem. Again, it is unfathomable that some screeners were not reported to their professional body by trust managers and supervisors. We have been advised that individual screeners who were found wanting have moved beyond the Southern Trust and that some are working in different disciplines while others have retired. What of their managers and supervisors, however, who were responsible for the service and were allowing screeners to work huge volumes of overtime, thereby jeopardising their efficiency? Do they continue in management and leadership roles in our health service? Minister, I hope that on Wednesday, when you publish those reports, you will be on the side of accountability and transparency. That is essential, but, so far, it has failed. Our amendment seeks clarity on the Belfast Trust's handling of the new regional human papilloma virus (HPV) testing service. The Minister knows that I have asked many questions about the awarding of the multi-million-pound contract to the Belfast Trust. We know that the committee that was set up to advise on the awarding of the HPV screening contract advised that it be set up on two sites. The Western Health and Social Care Trust and the Northern Health and Social Care Trust were already accredited for HPV screening, yet, despite that and the committee's recommendation, the contract was awarded to the Belfast Trust. That seems even more bizarre when we consider that the Belfast Trust did not have accreditation for HPV screening. Indeed, it had its screening accreditation removed by the UK's screening accreditation service. One reason for that was the lack of record-keeping. We know from subsequent reports that important slides were lost and that some were found down the back of a filing cabinet somewhere. Surely, that would move us to action on the issue. That ultimately led to the resignation from the screening programme of two leading clinicians. The Public Health Agency (PHA) described the awarding of the contract as being in line with best practice, and it talked about the need to concentrate expertise and staff resources in one specialist laboratory. That is extraordinary in light of what we now know about the performance of the regional screening service. At the very start of the contract, the Belfast Trust, which is a trust without accreditation, was sending tests to the labs in Gateshead, Newcastle. The result of that was extremely long waits for results, which extended to months. I have had an update on the figures since tabling the amendment, so we now know that, since 30 September, the Belfast Trust has sent 13,500 HPV tests to Gateshead. The trust said that that was due to an equipment failure. I would be interested, Minister, to know whether the 21-day target for the return of the results of those tests has been met. The specification for the new regional lab was to deliver 130,000 HPV tests and 23,000 cytology tests each year. Minister, how many of those tests has the Belfast Trust managed to deliver in the past year? What is the cost to the Belfast Trust of sending tests to Gateshead, and how is that cost being met? Will the Department recover costs from the trust for not meeting its performance targets? Have there been other times that are not in the public domain when tests have been sent to Gateshead? That is the information that is necessary for the House to judge the performance of the Belfast Trust and the new regional service. In finishing, I want to return, Minister, to my theme of accountability. The Department of Health is responsible for the performance management of screening programmes and related diagnostic and treatment services. The PHA is responsible for maintaining the structures and systems that support quality improvement and coordination across screening programmes. Therefore, I hope that you can tell us today, Minister, what exactly the PHA is doing to hold the Belfast Trust to account for those failures. What is the Department doing to hold the Belfast Trust to account for performance management failures? You and your Department need to consider the future very carefully. Many women across Northern Ireland —.

Yes, thank you. Many women across Northern Ireland need to have a service that they can have full confidence in. A public inquiry will uncover the truth.

1,337 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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