Question
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 20 December 2010 (WA 247), why the minutes of the HumanFertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) Research Licence Committee Meeting on 16 March 2005 contained no reference to the autoimmune nature of type 1 diabetes before concluding that cloning offered a means of avoiding "the likelihood of rejection of the transplanted cells"; and what information was communicated to the HFEA prior to 16 March 2005 in which the autoimmune nature of type 1 diabetes was highlighted or queried in relation to the licensing of this project.
Answer
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has advised that the research licence committees of the authority exercise their functions in accordance with the procedure, and applying the criteria, prescribed in law. In reaching a determination, a licence committee will take into account the opinion of expert peer reviewers, including an opinion on whether the use of embryos in the proposed research is necessary or desirable for one of the purposes specified in the relevant legislation, and relevant general advice from the authority's scientific and clinical advances advisory committee. The HFEA publishes minutes of licence committees on its website at: www.hfea.gov.uk. The HFEA has also advised that it does not comment on past decisions made by licence committees and future licensing decisions will be made in the light of the best scientific and other relevant information available at the time.