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Publication, Part of

Health and Care of People with Learning Disabilities, Experimental Statistics: 2018 to 2019 [PAS]

Experimental statistics, Other reports and statistics, Official statistics in development

Current Chapter

Cancer Screening


Data Quality Notice

NHS England has identified an issue with the data for the following indicator which is reported in the Interactive Visualisation Tool and the data csv file for this publication:

LDOB080 - Number of patients recorded on their general practice’s Learning Disabilities Register aged 14 years or over who have received an annual learning disability health check and have been provided with a health action plan, as at the end of the reporting period.

The proportion of people on the learning disability register with a heath check and health action plan is lower than expected. We are currently investigating the issue but whilst this is in progress we would advise against using the data for this indicator. As far as we are aware, no other indicators are affected. We will provide an update on this webpage as soon as possible.

12 December 2025 17:13 PM

Cancer Screening

Percentage of Patients who have Received Cancer Screening

Figure 1 shows that overall patients with learning disabilities are less likely to receive screening for the three types of cancers compared to patients without a learning disability. This difference is smallest for colorectal cancer screening and greatest for cervical cancer screening. Patients' ability to give informed consent to invasive procedures should be considered when interpreting these data.

Figure 1: Percentage of patients who are eligible for cancer screening on whom a cancer screening test has been performed in the five years prior to 31st March 2019

Cervical Cancer Screening

The overall proportion of patients without a learning disability receiving cervical cancer screening is significantly higher across the time series than for patients with a learning disability. However, figures 2 and 3 show that screening for patients with a learning disability has improved over the 5 years from 2014-15 to 2018-19 compared to patients without a learning disability where the screening rate has decreased over the same period. Note that the error bars represent 95% confidence intervals.

Figure 2: Percentage of eligible patients with a learning disability on whom an adequate cervical cancer screening test has been performed, 2014-15 to 2018-19
Figure 3: Percentage of eligible patients without a learning disability on whom an adequate cervical cancer screening test has been performed, 2014-15 to 2018-19


Last edited: 12 May 2026 11:14 am