Human Fertilisation and Embryology

Part of Living Wage (Reporting) – in the House of Commons at 2:15 pm on 3 February 2015.

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Photo of Luciana Berger Luciana Berger Shadow Minister (Public Health) 2:15, 3 February 2015

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that clarification.

Many concerns have been raised, the first of which is that this process is being rushed through. Anyone who has been involved in the development of these techniques would disagree that this has moved quickly. Professor Doug Turnbull and his team at the university of Newcastle have been researching this for 15 years. It was over six years ago, back in 2008, that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 was amended to introduce the powers to allow regulations that would enable mitochondria replacement to take place to be brought forward. It was back in 2010 that researchers at the university of Newcastle developed the techniques to avoid diseased mitochondria being passed from a mother to her children. After another three years of consultation and review processes, the Government announced in July this year that they would be bringing forward the regulations to enable mitochondrial donation techniques to be used, and that is what we are voting on today.