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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

My Lords, I will make just a brief interjection. It is my understanding that the licensing of any therapy would have to be done by the MHRA, working in consultation with the Human Tissue Authority and the HFEA. Those bodies have already foreseen the possibility that they will have to do just that. They have begun to work—I am not sure how far they have got—on an agreed process by which approval would be gained. The noble Lord, Lord Patel, and I tabled this amendment because, although the upstream work—the licensing of research—is well and truly covered by the matters being discussed under this Bill and the downstream work that needs to be in place to bring about the licensing of any therapy is in place, the middle part is missing. That has to start in this Bill, because it involves the licensing of a piece of research on a stem cell line for both research and therapy. We are in effect putting into place a missing middle link in a process and that missing link has to originate, as I understand it, in this Bill. Perhaps the noble Baroness could comment on that in her reply.