Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Baroness Thornton on 14 January (WA 170–1), whether the mistake concerning research licence numbers has occurred with respect to other research licences; and whether the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's Head of Information checked the information provided and cited reference numbers used by the authority to track applications for licences and renewals of licences.
Answer
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has advised that it is not aware that the human error the noble Lord refers to has occurred elsewhere relating to its records about research licences. The reference numbers to which the noble Lord refers are suffixes to licence numbers. These suffixes have no relevance to the accuracy of data but refer instead to the sequencing of licences for individual research projects.