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12 November 2010

Summary of request

The Authority was asked for information about the outcomes of fertility treatments funded by Luton PCT.  In particular:

1)      The number of successful outcomes these procedures have produced. 

2)      The age of women who have had successful outcomes (both pregnancy rates and birth rates)

3)      The ethnicity of women who have successful outcomes (both pregnancy rates and birth rates) 

4)      The number of multiple births resulting from fertility procedures and the type of fertility treatment that was received.

5)      Which fertility clinic each of women having successful outcomes attended (both positive pregnancy results and births). 

HFEA Response

The Authority began collecting data about the funding of IVF cycles when it introduced an electronic ‘IVF treatment & embryo creation/use’ form (Form T) in October 2007.  No systematic information about the funding of individual cycles is held prior to this date.  Full implementation of the new form took some time to accomplish: the previous form, which contained no field for reporting the source of funding, continued to be used by some centres until the second half of 2009.  Information about source of funding for licensed treatment prior to September 2009 cannot therefore be regarded as complete.

The Authority is bound by the confidentiality provisions of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 (‘the HFE Act’, as amended by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008), as well as by the Data Protection Act 1998.  Information about licensed treatment services provided to an identifiable individual, and information that shows that an identifiable individual was or may have been born as a result of licensed treatment services, inter alia, are required to be kept on the Authority’s register (‘register information’) and are protected by the strict confidentiality provisions of the HFE Act.  Except in certain circumstances set out in the Act, it may be a criminal offence to disclose register information from which an individual could be identified.  For these reasons certain aspects of the request were refused.  The specific reasons for refusal are set out in relation to each aspect below.

The inforamtion requested is contained in the attached tables. 

• IVF cycles funded by Luton PCT(271 kb)

Table 1 contains information about the values given for ‘name of commissioning organisation’ that were included within the scope of the data extracted.

Question 1: Table 2 contains information about recorded pregnancies and live births for treatments funded by the bodies set out in table 1 for the years for which any information is available.

Question 2: Table 3 contains information about the age of the woman at the time of treatment for those treatments for which the source of funding is listed in table 1, where a positive pregnancy or live birth outcome is recorded, for the date range for which information is available.  Owing to low numbers of patients treated, data have been given for a range of ages.  This is because to disclose information in relation to a particular age in each case may, when combined with other information to which the applicant may reasonably be expected to have access,  lead to the identification of a person who has received treatment services or someone born in consequence of treatment services.  Information about the provision of treatment services to an identifiable individual or the birth of an identifiable individual in consequence of treatment services is ‘register information’ falling within section 31(2) of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 (as amended).  Disclosure of information set out in section 31(2) of the HFEA Act (except in limited circumstances set out in the Act) is prohibited by s.33A of the HFE Act and may constitute a criminal offence.  This information is therefore exempt from the general entitlement to disclosure provided by section 1 of the FOIA under Section 44 of that Act.  The information also constitutes ‘personal data’ and, in the case of the person treated, ‘sensitive personal data’ within the meaning given in sections 1(1) and 2 of the Data Protection Act 1998 (‘DPA’).  It is the Authority’s opinion that disclosure of such information would be in breach of the first data protection principle (fair and lawful processing) as set out in Schedule 1 to the DPA since none of the conditions set out in Schedule 2 (personal data) or Schedule 3 (sensitive personal data) to the DPA is met.   The information is therefore also exempt from disclosure under sections 40(2) and 40(3)(a)(i) of the FOIA. 

Question 3: This information is refused.  The ethnicity information requested, combined with information to which the applicant might reasonably be expected to have access could thus result in the identification of one or more of the patients concerned or their offspring.  This would be the case even if the information were aggregated for all years for which the information is available.  The reasoning follows that set out in relation to the previous question and the request for this information is therefore refused.

Question 4: This information is given in table 4.

Question 5:  The breakdown of this information between clinics could lead to the identification of one or more of the patients concerned or their offspring. The reasoning follows that set out in relation to the question 2 and the request for this information is therefore refused.

Page last updated: 09 August 2012

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