Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham on 13 June (HL8182), how patient confidentiality might be compromised if no adverse outcomes were reported.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has advised that, due to the limited number of mitochondrial donation treatment outcomes to date in the United Kingdom, there is a significant possibility that when combined with other information, which may be reasonably accessed, it could lead to the identification of a person to whom the HFEA owes a duty of confidentiality.