Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department provides to ICBs to ensure that patients are informed of local IVF eligibility criteria at the point of referral to fertility services.

Funding decisions for health services in England are made by integrated care boards (ICBs), and we expect ICBs to commission fertility services in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. No guidance has been provided by the Department to the ICBs regarding the information provided to patients at the point of referral to fertility services.

As part of the Women’s Health Strategy for England, we published data showing how many in vitro fertilisation cycles are funded by the NHS in each area of England, to promote more transparency about what services commissioners are offering. This data is reviewed and updated periodically and was last updated on 11 September 2025. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-funded-ivf-in-england/nhs-funded-in-vitro-fertilisation-ivf-in-england