Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his Department's policy is on remedies for women who (a) cannot receive and (b) have difficulty receiving NHS IVF treatment because they have reached the age threshold for such treatment during the time taken to get a referral to a fertility (i) specialist and (ii) clinic from their GP.

Funding decisions for health services in England, including in vitro fertilisation (IVF), are made by integrated care boards (ICBs) and are based on the clinical needs of their local population.

We recognise that the impact of COVID-19 and industrial action has caused delays for some patients in receiving fertility treatment and we would expect ICBs to take this into account in assessing age-related entitlement to treatment.