Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the level of geographical variation of IVF funding; and whether it is his Department's policy that clinical commissioning groups implement NICE recommendations to commission funding for three cycles of IVF.

It is the Government's policy that clinical commissioning groups should have regard to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline on the assessment and treatment of people with fertility problems when commissioning services for which they are responsible. This includes the recommendation in the guideline that three cycles of in vitro fertilisation be offered to qualifying couples where the woman is under the age of 40 and one cycle where the woman is between the ages of 40 and 42.

The NICE guideline is evidence based best practice for clinicians but is not mandatory. The availability of National Health Service funded fertility treatment is and always has been a matter for local determination. Decisions on the level of service provision are underpinned by clinical insight and knowledge of local healthcare needs and priorities.