Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Merron on 12 March (HL Deb col 700), what consideration they have given to reviewing the priorities of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and its role with digital clinics.

Digital clinics do not currently fall within the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act and therefore are out outside of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s (HFEA) remit at present.

The HFEA published Modernising Fertility Law in November 2023, which made a number of recommendations for legislative change, including around its regulatory powers.

Ministers have met with the HFEA Chair and discussed the emerging regulatory challenges. The Government is considering the HFEA’s priorities for changing the law and will decide how to take this forward at the earliest opportunity.