The draft Commissioning Plan was approved by the boards of the HSCB and PHA on Thursday 30 June 2011 for onward transmission to the DHSSPS for Ministerial consideration.

Further refinement of the draft plan will take place in July and early August with a view to bringing a final draft plan to the August board meetings of the HSCB and PHA.

The Academy's review, 'A new pathway for the regulation and governance of health research' was published in January 2011. The report was prepared by a working group, chaired by Professor Sir Michael Rawlins FMedSci, convened in response to an invitation from Government to review the regulation and governance of UK health research involving human participants, their tissue or their data.

This report refers to the period 2009/2010.

During the reporting period, eligible women in Northern Ireland, aged 20-64, were invited for cervical screening every five years. The aim of the programme is to detect abnormalities in cervical cells that could, if left untreated, develop into cancer.

The screening programme consists of three main operational elements:

• Call and recall
• Cervical cytology
• Colposcopy

This poster highlights the fact that cigarette smoke breathed in by the mother reaches her unborn baby and directs women to the Smokers’ Helpline.