Health Minister Andrew Green said that the current £16 test fee would be abolished for those who attended the Le Bas Centre for a test from June.
And he said that his department was negotiating with GPs to get free tests for patients by the end of the year.
Thousands of smear tests are carried out every year in Jersey, with women paying between £16 and £57.50 for the screening, which is designed to detect the precursors to cervical cancer – the most common cancer in women aged 35 and under.
The JEP has previously reported on the varying costs paid by women for smear tests and called for them to be made free, in part as a way to encourage the one in four women who fail to attend regular screening to get checked.
Earlier this year it was revealed that the number of smear samples sent to UK laboratories for testing had dropped from 7,300 in 2015 to 5,491 in 2017.
According to the Health Department, around a quarter of all smear tests are carried out at the Le Bas Centre with the remainder being done at GP clinics.
Senator Green said: ‘I have asked my department to put in place measures that by the end of the year, and subject to contract negotiation, should provide free screening in GP practices.
‘While these details are worked out, I want to make sure that no woman is put off being screened on account of their ability to pay and, therefore, from 1 June, women will be able to access their three-yearly or five-yearly screening test free of charge at Le Bas Centre.’
He added: ‘I welcome the fact that this initiative means that cervical screening will now be free of charge to the individual, just like the other two population-based cancer screening programmes in Jersey – breast cancer screening for women and bowel cancer screening for men and women.’
The UK first began offering free checks on the NHS in the 1980s and it is claimed that the number of deaths associated with cervical cancer have halved since their introduction.
The disease is almost 100 per cent preventable when it is picked up at an early stage.
The announcement follows an Easter message from Monsignor Nicholas France, the head of the Catholic Church in Jersey, that the Island’s healthcare system where people have to pay to see the doctor is unfair.
Dr Nigel Minihane, head of the Island’s Primary Care Body, said: ‘I welcome this approach, which should mean that more women present for cervical screening.
‘In the future, advances in technology and self-testing should make earlier detection easier, and until we are at that point these moves are a positive step.’
