Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidelines NICE issues for (a) NHS trusts and (b) patients on changes to funding of fertility treatments.

In February 2013 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published a clinical guideline on the assessment and treatment of fertility problems, which constitutes best practice guidance for the National Health Service. NICE also published a quality standard on fertility problems in October 2014. Further information on NICE’s guidance on fertility is available on its website at:

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/conditions-and-diseases/fertility--pregnancy-and-childbirth/fertility.

NICE clinical guidelines and quality standards are not mandatory, but NHS organisations are expected to take them fully into account in the services that they offer to patients.