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 24 July 2015 (HL1524), how many modifications can be made to an existing research licence previously approved by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority before it can no longer be legitimately considered as essentially the same research project as that for which a licence was originally sought; and what sort of modifications can be made to an existing research licence before it is no longer considered to have exactly the same aims as those in the initial licence application that were originally deemed to fulfil the purposes specified in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 as amended.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has advised that there are no fixed number of modifications that can be made to an existing research licence project. Such questions are considered on a case by case basis with reference to the statutory tests.