Question
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Darzi of Denham on 20 May 2009 (WA 318) and 3 June 2009 (WA 88–89), by Baroness Thornton on 6 April 2010 (WA 393), and by Earl Howe on 19 July 2010 (WA 162) and 23 November 2010 (WA 297), why cloned human embryos created using the nuclei from a patient with type 1 diabetes are still considered by the authority's licence committee to be necessary or desirable to improve treatment of this disease.
Answer
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has advised that the grounds for the authority’s licensing decisions are set out in the minutes of licence committee meetings. The grounds for approving licence R0152 are set out in the minutes of the meeting at which the initial application was approved, and of subsequent meetings at which a renewal of the licence was approved. The most recent of these meetings took place on 18 June 2008 and the minutes of this meeting are available on the HFEA’s website at: http://guide.hfea.gov.uk/guide/InspectionReport.aspx?code =17&s=1&&nav=2 The HFEA has also advised that it has retained the minutes of the licence committee meeting of 16 March 2005, referred to in the noble Lord's question, in accordance with its agreed retention schedule. A copy of the minutes has been placed in the Library.