A third of women in Sutton are yet to have a cervical smear test, according to recent figures.

BMI healthcare, the UK's largest private healthcare provider, conducted a survey of 2,000 women across the capital and found that 32 per cent had never had a smear test.

The figures are reinforced by NHS South West London but they have a slightly lower figure, estimated at 25 per cent, among women aged 25-64.

BMI say the figure in Sutton to be 32 per cent which is the third highest in all of the London boroughs - the average across the capital is 25 per cent.

Smear test rates reached an all-time high in 2009 when celebrity Jade Goody died from cervical cancer - her death sparked a spike in teenage smear tests.

A spokesman for NHS South West London said: “Women aged between 25 and 49 years are routinely invited for cervical cancer screening every three years.

“Women aged between 50 and 64 years are invited every five years.

“NHS Sutton and Merton regularly monitors information on the number of women who have a cervical cancer screening test across the area.

Women who do not have regular cervical screens increase their risk of developing cervical cancer, a disease which kills three women a day in the UK.

Cervical cancer is the most common cancer in women under the age of 29 and the second most common cancer in women under 35.

Current government guidelines suggest women should have a screen every three to five years,.

Waltham Forest was the borough with the highest rate of women who have not had a cervical with 32 per cent while Lambeth, Enfield, Tower Hamlets and Hounslow have the lowest percentage of women not having smears with 17 per cent.

Further information on this and other NHS Cancer Screening Programmes is available at cancerscreening.nhs.uk