Question
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 30 June (WA 280–1), how the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has responded to comments made in the British Medical Journal (15 June 2010, volume 340, c3191) about linking National Health Service data on child development to use of assisted reproductive technology; and what estimate the Authority has made of the number of children likely to be affected in the United Kingdom.
Answer
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has advised that it has neither responded to comments made in the British Medical Journal nor made an estimate of the number of children affected. To enable better use to be made by researchers of information held on the HFEA's register of fertility treatments, including the long-term follow-up of children born as a result of in vitro fertilisation (IVF), the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 was amended in October 2009 to enable the people to whom the information relates to consent to its disclosure for research purposes. Regulations were also made in April 2010 to enable research applications for access to such data, where it is not practicable to obtain consent from the persons to whom it relates, for information collected on the register between August 1991 and September 2009.