Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS fertility clinics have paused services during the covid-19 lockdown announced in January 2021 as a result of (a) staff redeployment and (b) other covid-19-related issues.

Following the national lockdown in March 2020, all fertility clinics were able to re-open from May 2020, provided that they could demonstrate to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) that they could offer a safe service for patients and clinic staff during the ongoing pandemic.

The HFEA has advised that, as of 20 January 2021, a small number of clinics have been affected by staff redeployment and other COVID-19 related issues. This has resulted in less than 10% of clinics either temporarily suspending services, re-prioritising activity, or working with other local clinics to ensure patient treatment is not affected.