PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Embryos (5 April 2019)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 1 April 2014, Official Report, column WA177-8 and the Answer of 22 November 2016, Official Report, column, HL3075, how many families have been assisted by mitochondrial donation techniques in the past year; how many human embryos were deliberately destroyed in the course of attempting pronuclear transfer for which figures are available since the technique was first licensed for clinical application; how many human embryos were generated following spindle-chromosomal complex transfer for which figures are available since the technique was first licensed for clinical application; and how many live births there have been in the UK as a result of (a) pronuclear transfer and (b) spindle-chromosomal complex transfer.

Asked by:
Sir Edward Leigh (Conservative)

All applications for use of mitochondrial donation techniques are considered by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). 15 applications were received between 1 August 2017 and 31 January 2019, of which 14 were approved.

The HFEA has advised that eight embryos have been discarded since pronuclear transfer was first licensed for clinical application.

No human embryos have been generated following spindle-chromosomal complex transfer since the technique was first licensed.

There have been no live births in the United Kingdom to date following pronuclear transfer or spindle-chromosomal complex transfer.

Answered by:
Dame Jackie Doyle-Price (Conservative)
15 April 2019