Question
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) ““shelters human embryos from routine experimentation””, as described by the HFEA chair in an interview in the Guardian on 6 January; and how many human embryos have been spared from experimentation as a direct result of intervention by the HFEA.
Answer
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has advised that the legislation established following the 1984 report of the committee of inquiry into human fertilisation and embryology, chaired by the noble Baroness, Lady Warnock, enshrines controls on the use of human embryos in research, which were confirmed by Parliament in 2008. The HFEA administers these controls to ensure that the use of human embryos in research meets the conditions set out in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, as amended. The HFEA has further advised that the Act places no requirement on the authority to record the numbers of human embryos used or not used in research.