Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 6 January (HL4779), what "generally" means in that answer, and under what circumstances women travelling from Northern Ireland to Great Britain for an abortion would not have to pay for the procedure themselves.

The general position in England is that clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) arrange health services for persons for whom they are responsible. Broadly speaking CCGs arrange secondary care, which would include abortion services.

A CCG could commission services, including abortion services, for persons ordinarily resident in Northern Ireland who are nevertheless registered (on a temporary or permanent basis) with a general practitioner who is a member of that CCG, if such services would improve the physical or mental health or treatment of illness of that person. This would be a matter for the CCG to decide however and they are free to exercise their discretion in that regard. There is no duty on a CCG to arrange health services for a person usually resident in NI (or Wales or Scotland) unless that person is present in the CCG’s area and needs ambulance services or accident and emergency services.