Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that there are no (a) practical and (b) financial barriers for LGBTQ+ people when accessing IVF treatments.

The Department undertook a policy review of the variation in access to National Health Service fertility services in 2021. The review will inform the Women’s Health Strategy, which is due to be published in spring 2022.

We expect local NHS commissioning bodies to commission fertility services in line with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidelines, to ensure equitable access in England. NICE guidelines were updated in 2013 to include provision for female same-sex couples. However, these are now outdated and the Department has agreed with NICE that the fertility guidelines should be reviewed and scoping for the review has started.