10 Oct 2008 Minister of State Health

Thank you for your letter of 23 September to Dawn Primarolo about host surrogacy.  As I am sure you will appreciate, Ms Primarolo receives a large amount of correspondence and it is not always possible for her to answer all of her letters personally.  I have been asked to reply.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill was brought to the House of Commons from the House of Lords on the 5 February, and is set to complete its final stages in both Houses this Autumn.

As you note in your letter, the Bill increases the storage period for embryos from 5 years to 10 years.  Following this, the Department will be consulting on several sets of regulations prior to the commencement of the implementation of the Bill.  These will include those regulations that set out the circumstances in which storage of gametes and embryos can be extended.

Primarily, the current storage regulations need to be updated to reflect the changes to statutory limits made by the Bill.  These statutory limits address current discrepancies between the current time limit for gametes, and for embryos.  Again, as you noted, the Bill brings the initial storage period of embryos from five to ten years, in line with that for gametes.

However, the Government will take this opportunity to address some problems with the regulations that have been highlighted during debates on the Bill, and in consultation with stakeholders.  One of the issues raised addressed the exceptional circumstances for extending storage where the use of a surrogate is required.  This concern has also been raised by ‘a little wish’, and the Department can assure you that it will consider it when updating the regulations.  Yours views will be welcomed when the three month public consultation is undertaken.  The consultation will be published over the next few months.

I hope this reply is helpful.

Yours sincerely

(signed)

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"Yours views will be welcomed when the three month public consultation is undertaken.  The consultation will be published over the next few months." These are possibly the HFEA meetings mentioned here http://www.a-little-wish.co.uk/calendar.aspx *a little wish* is requesting clarification.