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 11 February (HL5646), when the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority changed its practice; what the reasons were for doing so; and how that change in practice had previously been communicated publicly.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) cannot confirm when this practice changed. Making provision for interested members of the public to make their views known, whilst not a legal requirement under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, was part of the HFEA’s past practice although very few applications attracted a response. This change was not communicated publicly.