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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

My Lords, the noble Baroness mentioned the HFEA in general and my name in particular. She made a comparison between the number of applications turned down by the Home Office from researchers wanting to do research on animals, abiding by the Animal (Scientific Procedures) Bill, with the small number of applications turned down by the HFEA. It is important to bear in mind the fact that hundreds if not thousands of applications are made to the Home Office for work using animals. Obviously we have so far had very few applications to the HFEA for work using embryos. Furthermore, there is an early filtering-out system, not only by the local research ethics committees in hospitals; the scientific community knows that it will get approval only if research cannot be done using any method other than embryos. The comparison made by the noble Baroness is not entirely fair. She rightly stresses the importance of therapies using adult stem cells, which are obviously much more useful for therapies, but the scientific community would say—I am sure the noble Lord, Lord Winston, will bear this out—that for fundamental research, work is needed using embryonic stem cells. Again it is slightly unfair to contrast the work being done for therapies using adult stem cells and the work that still needs to be done at a very basic level.