Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it a legal requirement to state the (a) risks to women's health and (b) potential side effects of egg retrieval on adverts for those services.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the United Kingdom’s fertility sector regulator, has advised that it sets out strict requirements in its Licence Conditions and Code of Practice relating to the information that must be given before egg retrievals take place in UK licensed fertility clinics, whether for the patient’s own use or to donate to others. This information includes the potential immediate or longer-term health risks to themselves, or the psychological consequences of being a donor.

The HFEA Code of Practice states that advertising should be designed with regard to the sensitive issues involved in recruiting donors, and should follow the Advertising Standards Authority codes. There are no current plans to change the law on this issue.