Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by Progress Education Trust into the variation in policy amongst NHS commissioners in eligibility criteria for NHS funded treatment for infertility.

Funding decisions for health services in England are made by integrated care boards and are based on the clinical needs of their local population. We expect these organisations to commission fertility services in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines, ensuring equal access to fertility treatment across England.

The Women’s Health Strategy was published on 20 July 2022 and contained a number of important changes and future ambitions to improve the variations in access to National Health Service funded fertility services. Among the initial priorities, we will work with NHS England to eliminate unfair financial burdens faced by female same-sex couples when accessing NHS funded services and to remove non-clinical access criteria.

In preparation for the new NICE fertility guideline due to be published in 2024, which sets the standard for clinical care, we expect local NHS commissioners to be improving their offer to fertility patients in anticipation of implementing the new guideline.