The Society's call comes as the government accepts "in principle" all girls aged between 12 and 13 should be vaccinated against the virus that causes cervical cancer, as recommended by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The public health charity welcomed the government's support "in principle" to the JCVI's recommendation as a positive step to save hundreds of lives each year and urged the government to provide the resources necessary to implement an effective vaccination programme.

Professor Richard Parish, Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Health said;

"The government's support 'in principle' to roll out vaccination against the virus that causes cervical cancer is a real boost to public health and will go a long way to saving the 1120 lives lost in this country each year to cervical cancer as well as greatly reducing the number of women having to go through cervical cancer treatment, a traumatic experience for individuals and their family."

"The government should waste no further time, this is an essential vaccination to protect the lives of hundreds of women and should be part of the national immunisation programme without delay and without further lives being put at risk."

Prof Parish continued; "Immunisation has an important role to play in protecting the public's health and this latest development is a positive step. But a vaccination on its own is not enough. Public awareness and understanding of the issues is essential to reducing the impact of cervical cancer and the Society looks forward to working in this area."

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