Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Special Exemption) Regulations 2009

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Darzi, for the eloquent way in which he introduced the regulations. I, too, put on record my thanks to the officials who briefed me and the noble Earl, Lord Howe, last week. It was a most helpful meeting. I have a few questions and points I wish to raise. I will deal with these regulations in the order in which the noble Lord, Lord Darzi, introduced them. The first regulations deal with the appeals committee of the HFEA. Those are important regulations. They lay down in express terms the mechanisms for appeal. Those were not included in the 1990 Act. Since then the nature of the issues which the HFEA has to consider has become increasingly complex. In recent years, a number of HFEA decisions have been challenged and it is right therefore that the appeals procedure should be placed on a similar basis to that of other organisations such as the GMC and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. I take a slightly different view from the noble Earl. One of the main reasons why this appeal committee should be structured in the way that it is and should be chaired by someone who is legally competent is that, as I envisage it working, the committee will have to deal with a number of issues in a field where scientific knowledge and ethical questions arise in a comparatively short space of time. This is cutting-edge, innovative work. The more important reason is, however, that, unlike many other areas of medicine, the issue of time can be very important to the people bringing the appeals. Women may have biological clocks running. Therefore the intent behind laying out such a detailed appeals procedure, as the noble Lord, Lord Darzi, said in his introduction, is to minimize the need for people to resort to the courts. Therefore I can see the logic of doing that.