Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 25 February (HL4988), why they have not signed or ratified the Council of Europe's Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine; and whether they intend to do so.

The Council of Europe Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine covers a very wide range of complex ethical and legal issues. These issues involve a large number of different policy areas which are covered by a mixture of United Kingdom legislation and common law and some of the relevant policy areas are within the competence of the devolved administrations.

In common with a number of other European Union states, the UK has not signed or ratified the Convention.