Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of allowing young women to be solicited for egg donations by for-profit fertility clinics utilising adverts which do not list known health risks on their safety.

No such assessment has been made. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the United Kingdom’s fertility sector regulator, sets out strict requirements in its Licence Conditions and Code of Practice in relation to the recruitment of donors and the information that must be given to egg donors in advance of donating at United Kingdom licensed fertility clinics, which includes information about the potential immediate or longer-term health risks and the psychological consequences of being a donor, as well as offering counselling to everyone involved.

The HFEA’s Code of Practice states that advertising should be designed with regard to the sensitive issues involved in recruiting donors and should follow the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) codes. This includes that advertising or publicity aimed at recruiting gamete or embryo donors, or encouraging donation, should not refer to the possibility of financial gain or similar advantage, although it may refer to compensation permitted under relevant HFEA Directions.

The ASA and HFEA issued a joint enforcement notice in 2021 to ensure fertility clinics and others were aware of the advertising rules, which remains in place.