To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 23 June (WA 184), when the person responsible for Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) licence R0179 requested that this licence should be revoked with immediate effect; what were the reasons given by the person responsible for making this request at the time; and whether the reasons given were consistent with or contrary to the justification provided in the original research licence application.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has advised that the licence holder for research project R0179 at the Centre for Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (centre 0296) notified the authority on 11 August 2010 that no research was being undertaken pursuant to that licence. The licence was revoked by a licence committee that met on 15 September 2010. The reason given by the person responsible for the ending of the project was that the project could not continue due to lack of funding.