Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether IVF is available to couples on the NHS if one partner in that couple has a child from a former relationship.

Funding decisions for health services in England, including IVF, are made by integrated care boards (ICBs) and are based on the clinical needs of their local population. We expect these organisations to commission fertility services in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines, ensuring equal access to fertility treatment across England.

We are aware that some ICBs apply non-clinical access criteria to National Health Service fertility treatment, such as one partner having a child from a previous relationship.

The Women’s Health Strategy was published on 20 July 2022 and contained a number of important changes and future ambitions to improve the variations in access to NHS-funded fertility services. As part of this work, we will work with NHS England to assess fertility provision across ICBs with a view to removing non-clinical access criteria.