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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

I apologise to the Committee for my absence earlier this afternoon, which was unavoidable. In the absence of my noble friend Lady Williams of Crosby, I will make a few points on the first three amendments proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Alton. We support him in his request in Amendment No. 21 for reports and information about the amount of resources put towards various different types of research. Bearing in mind the comments made by the noble Lord, Lord Patten, earlier, I caution the noble Lord, Lord Alton, not to draw conclusions based simply on the amount of government funding for particular types of research. If the noble Lord, Lord Patten, is right that a great deal of commercial investment is being made into certain types of research, it is entirely legitimate that the Government might seek to fund the type of research that is not of greatest commercial value but which has a greater public health value, even though it is more difficult to fund. I caution against some of the interpretations that might be made of the data. I listened to the noble Lord, Lord Alton, on Amendment No. 22, and his quote from the noble Baroness, Lady Warnock, on the formation of her committee. The thought that immediately struck me was, ““That was then””. Since 1990, the system of appointments to public bodies has changed dramatically. What the noble Baroness, Lady Warnock, talked about is a thing of the past. There is now far greater transparency in public appointments, and that applies to the HFEA as much as to other bodies. The question in my mind on this amendment is, ““Is it right to impose on one member of the authority a particular duty?””. I think that it may not be. My understanding is that all members of a public body must pay regard to ethical issues, and none of them should be there if they do not. They may come to collective judgments, but it is a common responsibility. As for Amendment No. 23, other Members of the Committee have talked about the issue of expertise with far greater authority than I could. It is always the case that the pool of people from which one selects some of the membership for specialist bodies must have extensive involvement in the field. That is not a new or unique situation in public appointments. Finally, the noble Lord, Lord Alton, talked about payments made to the regulator by the clinics it regulates. In a number of different fields, and pensions is one—I see the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, on the Benches opposite—it is not uncommon for regulators to be paid by the bodies they regulate provided that there is a clear remit in law regarding what the charges should be for. The HFEA was set up in that way. The fact that two sorts of bodies are engaged in the same field does not necessarily give rise to a conflict of interest.