Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answers by Baroness Thornton on 5 January (WA 24–5), what was the mean number of eggs collected per cycle at the Newcastle Fertility Centre in each year since 2004; whether the estimate of 900 failed-to-fertilise eggs potentially available for research takes account of those figures combined with the number of treatment cycles performed annually at the Newcastle Fertility Centre and the percentage of all eggs that failed to fertilise according to the initial application for licence R0152; and whether estimated numbers of failed to fertilise eggs based on these figures takes account of a total of 1224 failed to fertilise eggs obtained between 2 June 2005 and 11 May 2006 or a total of 1170 failed to fertilise eggs obtained in 2007 according to Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority research licence inspection reports.
Answer
A research licence under paragraph 3(1) of Schedule 2 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 (as amended) authorises the creation of embryos in vitro and keeping or using embryos for the purposes of a project of research, whose purpose must be consistent with paragraph 3A of that schedule. Parliament has decided in view of the special importance attached to embryos that no research may be conducted on them without a licence, but that is not the case for research involving only eggs or sperm. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has advised that it receives information about the use of eggs incidentally to the research licensing process, but the information it holds on the use of eggs is necessarily limited, compared to the information it holds on the use of embryos. Directions 0002 issued by the HFEA (dated 1 July 2009) require licence holders to maintain records on total numbers of embryos created, used or disposed of in undertaking of the licensed research. Such data held by the HFEA are made available in inspection reports and research licence committee minutes published on the HFEA website. Where inspection reports and research licence committee minutes are not available on the HFEA website these can be requested from the HFEA.