Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 22 January (HL4042), whether step 1 must always be performed before step 2 in the different processes described by Regulations 4 and 7 of the Draft Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015; if so, what are the reasons for this and how completion of step 1 would be ascertained; if not, whether it would be permissible for the two steps either to be performed simultaneously or for step 2 to be performed before step 1; and under what circumstances an egg or embryo resulting from completion of step 2 could be considered to be a permitted egg or embryo if there was any reasonable doubt that step 1 had not been completed.

As stated in my answer of 22 January 2015 (HL4042), step 1 and step 2, described by Regulations 4 and 7 of The Draft Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015, would be completed in their entirety in order to generate a permitted egg or embryo. The regulations do not specify the order in which the steps must be followed. The completion of step 1, if there was any concern that this step had been completed, could be tested by genetic analysis to determine the karyotype (number of chromosomes).