Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the timescale is for deciding and publishing the benchmark price for IVF.

NHS England has advised that the in vitro fertilisation (IVF) benchmark price will be developed during 2017/18 with support from the IVF Expert Advisory Group and all key stakeholders, working towards publishing the IVF benchmark price ready for the financial year 2018/19. It is also planning to develop and test an IVF outcome based payment approach with a number of clinical commissioning groups and service providers in 2018/19.

The issue of an IVF benchmark price was first raised at a meeting with my hon. Friend the former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Public Health (Jane Ellison) on 14 December 2015, attended by NHS England officials and stakeholders. There was a subsequent follow up meeting between the Department and NHS England on 10 May 2016. NHS England met with professionals groups and stakeholders on 24 June 2016 and established the IVF Expert Advisory Group, whose membership includes NHS England, the Department, National Health Service commissioners, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, professional groups and patient stakeholders. The Expert Advisory Group met for the first time on 11 November 2016 and is scheduled to meet again on 3 March 2017. A wider stakeholder workshop also took place on 9 December 2016.