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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

No, it is not. Perhaps I may say something that might help the Minister in preparing her answer to us all. When these stem cell lines are used for treatment, EU and UK regulations will require that they will have been produced in what is called a good manufacturing practice environment, which is very strict. If they are not produced in that kind of environment, they will be rejected for use in treatment. Any lines that are produced in other environments could perfectly well be used for therapeutic research, but they cannot be used for treatment. It will take us some time. The facilities required are extremely expensive, costing more than £3 million to set up. It would be daft for everybody to have such facilities; it would be far better for one or two centres to have them and to be given a licence specifically to produce clinical-grade embryonic stem cell lines, with trials, which will be stored in further appropriate, good-quality facilities—our own bank has such facilities. The lines would then be accessible both to research workers and for therapy. We do not have to produce other lines. Industry recognises this. I know that it already holds several such lines, but it will never give them to research workers or other people for use in therapy; it will use them for its own purposes. They are not being produced in this country, so they are not in our bank. Industry recognises that it needs to prepare clinical-grade, ES cell lines that meet EU and UK regulations. If we can do that for adult stem cells, where we can do without licences, why can we not have clinical-grade stem cell lines from ES cells?