Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is his policy that clinical commissioning groups should fully implement the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines on in vitro fertilisation.

It is the Government's policy that clinical commissioning groups should have regard to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline on the assessment and treatment of people with fertility problems when commissioning services for which they are responsible.

The NICE guideline is evidence-based best practice for clinicians but is not mandatory. The availability of National Health Service funded fertility treatment is and always has been a matter for local determination, by clinical insight and knowledge of local healthcare needs and priorities.