Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the experiments to test for heteroplasmy on primordial germ cells created from human embryonic stem cells derived from blastocysts created through maternal spindle transfer and pronuclear transfer where the oocytes had a variant or abnormal mitochondrial DNA recommended by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's expert panel in its publication Scientific review of the safety and efficacy of methods to avoid mitochondrial disease through assisted conception: update, published in March 2013, have been concluded; and in which peer reviewed journal he plans to publish the findings of that review.

We are advised that good progress is being made with the experiments recommended by the Expert Panel convened by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) and that the scientists involved hope to be able to provide an update shortly.

The specific experiments to test for heteroplasmy on primordial cells are not part of the additional tests recommended by the Expert Panel convened by the HFEA.

The Department does not routinely publish scientific research conducted independently by others.