As many as 300,000 girls aged 17 and 18 will be given a vaccine this September against the sexually transmitted disease that causes most cervical cancers, Dawn Primarolo, the public health minister, will announce tomorrow.

The Department of Health has already said that girls aged 12 and 13 will be given the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine when they return to school this autumn. Tomorrow Primarolo will say that next term all girls in their final school year will also receive the immunisation as part of a programme forecast to cost £100m a year.

“Our policy to vaccinate girls against cervical cancer is one of the biggest public health campaigns in recent history. It will mean up to 400 lives will be saved each year,” Primarolo said.

She added that savings made in negotiations over procurement of the Cervarix vaccine, produced by GlaxoSmithKline, will allow the department to give the 17 and 18-year-olds the vaccine this year.

According to the minister, the vaccination scheme may eventually allow the government to consider a scaling down of the cervical screening programme, which checks for abnormalities that can lead to cancer.

The Cervarix vaccine will guard against the two strains of the human papilloma virus that cause 70% of cases of cervical cancer, the second most common form of the disease in women worldwide.

Every year girls aged 12 and 13 will be offered the vaccine. From September 2009 another one-off catchup programme will vaccinate all girls up to 18.

Girls will be offered the vaccines at school in programmes run by nurses from local National Health Service primary care trusts (PCTs).

The health department is giving PCTs an additional £10m to cover the costs for 17 and 18-year-olds.

Unlike governments in America and much of Europe the health department has chosen Cervarix in preference to Gardasil, made by Sanofi Pasteur MSD, which, unlike Cervarix, also protects against genital warts, an infection that is rising steeply.

Charities have accused the government of opting for the cheaper vaccine to save money. A paper from the Health Protection Agency, published online by the British Medical Journal, shows the choice of Cervarix could save up to £18.6m a year. Primarolo said the savings will allow more girls to be vaccinated, adding that while cervical cancer is fatal, genital warts are not.

In America, where the jab has been introduced in several states, there has been criticism that it can encourage girls to have unprotected sex and that it sends confused messages about when it is right for them to lose their virginity.

Dr Syed Ahmed, a member of the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation, which advised on the use of the vaccine, said: “Surveys show the vast majority of parents are in favour of the vaccine.” The committee also says there is little evidence of side effects, which are far outweighed by the benefits.

Cervical cancer affects about 3,000 British women each year, some of whom can be in their twenties. About 1,000 die from it annually.

Disabled people will be given “personal budgets” allowing them to buy their own services and treatment under government plans to part-privatise social care.

The proposals, to be unveiled tomorrow, will give the disabled and their families the opportunity to make top-up payments to private providers rather than rely on standardised state services.

The all-in-one cash payments, worth up to £2,000 a year, will replace six benefits paid by three departments. It marks another step towards a wider system of “co-payments” where individuals can pay extra to receive better public services.

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