Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 15 July 2013 (HL1303), what progress the Human and Embryology Authority is able to report that may correspond to previous estimates that mitochondria replacement techniques could "save the lives of up to 10 babies who are born every year with a severe form of the disease, such as those with high levels of mutations".

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has advised that it has made no assessment of the estimates previously made by the Wellcome Trust Centre for Mitochondrial Research at Newcastle University, as the number of treatments to date in the United Kingdom is so low.