Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Prior of Brampton on 27 January (HL5040), what assessment they and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) have made of the case for all women and their children receiving equal protections; and what recommendations the HFEA has made to the Department of Health on that issue.

The Human Fertilisation and Embyrology Authority has not made an assessment of the case for women who obtain sperm in a private arrangement (and any resulting children) to have the same protections as women who obtain sperm through a licensed clinic, for the reasons set out in the response to the Noble Lord on 27 January (HL5040).