Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to help ensure (a) accessible and (b) sufficient fertility support for women experiencing breast cancer in (i) Newcastle-under-Lyme and (ii)Staffordshire and (iii) England.

To ensure accessible and sufficient fertility support for women experiencing breast cancer in England, including in Newcastle-under-Lyme and Staffordshire, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) fertility guidelines set clinical standards for the current National Health Service offer to people with cancer who wish to preserve their fertility.

NICE has recently updated its guideline on fertility problems to ensure that advice for clinicians reflects the latest evidence about diagnosing and treating fertility problems. The guideline includes updates to extend fertility preservation services, for instance freezing eggs, sperm, or embryos, to anyone facing medical treatments or conditions that could harm their fertility, including breast cancer. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng257

NHS commissioners are expected to take NICE guidelines fully into account in ensuring that local services meet the needs of their local populations. The Department is currently working to assess current provision of NHS-commissioned fertility services as a baseline to inform supporting material for every integrated care board to implement the new NICE guideline in full.