Clause 27
Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [Lords]
11:45 am
Dawn Primarolo (Minister of State (Public Health), Department of Health; Bristol South, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman raised points earlier about the responsible person if a licence were revoked or a request to revoke a licence were made by the clinic. He made specific reference to the provisions for patients who might already be having treatment, and to ensuring that the storage of embryos, material and information is done in the proper way. I made it clear to him that those matters were requirements of the licence. The payment of the fee is to ensure that those arrangements can be made, and it may be that it is transferred to another clinic for treatment, for instance, or for maintenance.
The circumstances for a clinic that was closing down and submitted that it wished to have its licence revoked would be rather different to cases where the HFEA was revoking a licence for its own reasons, but none the less, administrative expenses would occur both for the HFEA and for patients going to other areas. It is not about income generation for the HFEA. As was said in our earlier discussion about fees charged by the HFEA, it may charge a fee, but it does not have to do so. Specific provision is not made in the Bill for such charges, but it is envisaged that they would be covered, because there would be consequential expenses. I assure the hon. Gentleman that it is not about income generation for the authority. I hope that that covers his questions.