To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 22 January 2014 (WA 124–5), under what circumstances nuclear DNA removed and isolated from an egg or an embryo would be classed as either a permitted egg or permitted sperm when nuclear DNA removed and isolated from an embryo would not be classed as a live human embryo.

Section 3(2) of the Human Fertilisation & Embryology Act 1990, as amended (the 1990 Act), prohibits the placing in a woman of an embryo other than a permitted embryo or any gametes other than permitted eggs or permitted sperm. Neither the definition of the terms "permitted egg", "permitted sperm" and "permitted embryo" in section 3ZA of the 1990 Act nor in Regulations 3 and 6 of The Draft Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations 2015 extends to isolated DNA.