Question
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Earl Howe on 30 June (WA 282) and 23 November (WA 297), how the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) scrutinised the cloning of embryos using nuclei from a patient with type 1 diabetes and concluded that this could ““be applied in developing treatments for serious disease””, if the steps to be taken to counteract the autoimmune response have never been detailed in any relevant research application submitted to the HFEA.
Answer
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has advised its licence committees consider all applications for licences for human embryo research in accordance with the criteria set out in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, as amended. The grounds for a committee’s decision are recorded in the relevant minutes, which are published on its website at: www.hfea.gov.uk.