Question
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Thornton on 19 January (WA 225), when the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority ceased to hold raw data regarding the number of eggs collected per patient and the percentage of eggs used to create embryos used in treatment, cryopreserved or donated to research.
Answer
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has advised that there is nothing to add to my Written Answer of 23 June 2010 (Official Report, col. WA 182-3). The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, as amended, requires the HFEA to be satisfied that the proposed research project is necessary or desirable for the purposes specified in the Act, that the use of embryos is necessary and that consent for the purposes of research has been obtained. No legislation is proposed on this matter. The HFEA has advised that it holds no information regarding what was reported in the Independent. The authority has also advised that it continues to hold the data referred to in the noble Lord's Question.