Lambeth has experienced a fall in cervical screening rates, something which has been described as a “serious health inequality.”

The most recent NHS data shows a 1.4 per cent drop in the number of women aged 26-64 being screened in 2016 to 2017 compared to 2015 to 2016.

London Assembly Member for Lambeth and Southwark Florence Eshalomi called for more resources to be available to women about cervical cancer.

“This is a concerning move in the wrong direction,” she said.

“It is further evidence that the NHS needs to be allocated more resources to effectively engage with women across our community.

“The Government must also do their part by looking at how screenings can be made more accessible and ensuring that adequate resources are in place to enable the NHS to reach more women,” she said.

She said the it was vital the London Mayor takes action to “address this serious health inequality.”

Cervical screening looks for abnormal cells in the cervix that can develop into cancer.

Mrs Eshalomi said the drop might be because of more people moving in the borough, and not registering with a GP.

“It might be that the downward trend we are seeing in our local community, and across the capital, is due to our increasingly transient population, with less Londoners registering with a GP.

London has the lowest average rate of coverage in the country with only two thirds of eligible women having gone through the screening programme between 2016 and 2017.

Nationally, there has been a 0.7 per cent reduction in screening coverage, which as dropped to 72 per cent.

The fall in coverage comes in spite of the fact that there was an increase in women – totalling 4.45 million – invited to undertake a screening nationwide.