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Women, Justice and Gender Equality

I agree with an awful lot of what the hon. Lady has said. The hon. Gentleman’s survey is excellent, and I shall refer to it again later, but the all-party group has also conducted a survey of PCTs. The shameful fact is that a third of them did not bother to respond. Moreover, two thirds of those that did respond displayed a much less determined approach than we would have wanted. Their casual approach to the problem was totally unacceptable. We need more than a statement of expectation. Therefore, my first request to the Ministers attending the debate is that they undertake to secure from the Department of Health a directive requiring all health authorities and PCTs to implement NICE guidance in respect of the provision of IVF treatment. Without such a directive, and in the absence of women knocking on their doors and telling them of the difficulties that they face, those bodies will simply assume that no problem exists. I assure the House that the problem does exist, but the sad thing is that it is often invisible. Researchers and medics involved in infertility tell us that IVF treatment gives women under 35 a one in four chance of becoming pregnant, and that that success rate is even higher for women under 30. The evidence shows that when women of the right age—that is, under 27—are given the right medical treatment, there is a 70 per cent. chance that they will get pregnant. I am sincere when I say that, if cancer treatments could achieve the same success rate, we would all be demanding that they be made available. However, although the figures for all cancer treatments are very blurry, a 5 per cent. cure rate is the usual one cited. Cancer treatments are funded by the NHS, and no one in the House would ever say that they should not be—indeed, we would all call for more funding to be made available. If IVF were to be funded in the same way as cancer treatments, very many more people who need it would be able to benefit.