State of the fertility sector 2019/2020

Annual publication on our regulatory work Published: November 2020 Download the underlying data set as.xlsx (47KB)

About this report

We are the independent regulator of fertility treatment and human embryo research in the United Kingdom (UK). We aim to ensure that everyone who steps into a fertility clinic, and everyone born as a result of treatment, receives high quality care. We do this by licensing, monitoring and inspecting fertility clinics and providing free, clear and impartial information about fertility treatment, clinics, and egg, sperm and embryo donation. State of the Sector is our annual report, which summarises what we have seen through our regulatory work during the year. The report is compiled from information gathered from our inspections throughout the year and uses other sources of information including our Register of fertility treatments, incident reports and patient feedback mechanisms. In 2019/20, we introduced a Clinical Governance Quarterly Update which provides clinics with detailed insight into non-compliances in a more timely manner to help clinics improve compliance and prepare for inspections. As a result, the State of the Sector report this year provides a high-level overview of sector-wide compliance, reporting on the absolute number of inspections, non-compliances, incidents and complaints.

Impact of COVID-19 on the fertility sector

This report looks at the financial year 2019/20 (1 April 2019 – 31 March 2020), predominantly covering the period before any COVID-19 restrictions were put in place. As COVID-19 caused unprecedented demand on the NHS during the initial wave of the pandemic, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) made the difficult decision to publish [General Direction 0014](https://po...