Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Prior of Brampton on 11 July (HL1098) and 7 November (HL2544), which previous answers identified the members of the expert panel convened by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) who shared private and confidential correspondence with members of the HFEA Executive that had not been submitted to the Authority as part of any formal calls for evidence; and if they are unable to answer the questions, why they are unable to do so.

The members of the expert panel convened by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) who shared private and confidential correspondence with members of the HFEA Executive, that had not been submitted to the Authority as part of any formal calls for evidence, have not been identified. I refer the noble Lord to the answer of 7 November 2016 (HL2544). The HFEA has advised that it has nothing further to add, in respect of the correspondence between Professor Grifo and the expert panel, to that already set out in previous answers.