All girls aged 12 and 13 are to receive vaccinations against cervical cancer.

Schoolgirls in Year 8 will receive the jab in a programme which is expected to cost up to £100 million a year.

There will also be a two-year 'catch-up' campaign starting in autumn 2009 for girls aged up to 18, costing up to £200 million a year.

This means girls aged 16 to 18 years (Years 12 and 13) will be offered the vaccine from autumn 2009.

Girls aged 15 to 17 years (Years 11 and 12) will be offered the jab from autumn 2010.

By the end of the catch-up campaign, all girls under the age of 18 should have been offered protection.

The Department of Health agreed to the scheme in June and the programme will get under way next September.

The girls will be vaccinated against the sexually transmitted infection human papillomavirus (HPV).

HPV causes around 70 per cent of cases of cervical cancer, which kills more than 1,000 women in the UK each year.

The jab, which is not compulsory and is most likely to be delivered in schools, is expected to revolutionise the approach to beating the disease.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson said: 'As a society we need to do more to prevent disease and not just treat it.

'Now more than ever before we need to make the NHS a service that prevents ill health and prioritises keeping people well.

'This means a shift in focus from a sickness service to a wellbeing service.'

Professor David Salisbury, director of immunisation, said: 'The benefits of introducing this vaccine into the national immunisation programme will be felt by women and their families for generations to come.