Question
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 18 June 2007 (WA 8–9), why research licence R0153 was granted by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) in order to apply nuclear transfer techniques in human reproduction when the person responsible for this licence had stated in the progress report for research licence R0122 (received by the HFEA in April 2004) that ““Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis is a feasible option for detection of mitochondrial DNA mutations”” where the extent to which these occur in oocytes and offspring from the same mother may vary considerably.
Answer
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has advised that whether proposed research satisfies the statutory requirements in order to be granted a HFEA research licence is a matter for the authority's research licence committee to determine. As I advised the noble Lord in my Written Answer of 7 February 2011 (Official Report, col. WA 14), the HFEA has stated that it will not comment on licensing decisions made by its licence committees.