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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 29: 29: Schedule 6, page 72, line 26, at end insert— ““The Secretary of State shall within four years of the coming into force of this Schedule, carry out a review of the law and practice concerning the inclusion in the birth certificates of donor conceived persons the fact of such conception.”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, those of us who have followed the argument on whether a birth certificate should record the fact of a donor conception will recognise that this is yet another attempt to try to find a way forward, given that as everyone recognises there are deep divisions of opinion within what might be called the donor conception community—whether as parents or as donor-conceived children. I have very much in mind the admonition of the noble Baroness, Lady Royall, at the beginning about not repeating the arguments that I advanced—at some length, I fear—on Report. Then I asked that the HFEA should keep the matter under review, and I added that if the HFEA recommended that there should be a change in the law relating to birth certificates in practice, the Government could then make the necessary changes by statutory instrument. Both conditions were criticised by the noble Baroness, who said that the HFEA was not best placed to carry out a review in that area. She said: "““Changes to the birth registration laws would involve amending a number of different Acts and I do not believe that a review of the law in this area would be within the remit of the HFEA””." She went on to say: "““It is also not clear that this provision is necessarily appropriate to be implemented by secondary legislation””.—[Official Report, 28/1/08; col. 510.]" Anyone reading the amendment will recognise that I have met those two requirements. It will now be the Secretary of State who will carry out the review, and the suggestion that a change in the law might be made by order has been removed. That there needs to be a review from time to time is extremely clear. There is widespread feeling that birth certificates should not connive in a lie. That was considered at some length by the Joint Committee, and we did not like the idea one bit that there should be an element of deliberate deception, as it were, connived at by the authorities. There are those who feel strongly that the birth certificate should record the facts. My noble friend Lord Ferrers was very eloquent on that subject. However, there is the great difficulty that a large number of the parents of donor-conceived children believe that to make it public at this stage would play to the prejudices of a great many people and harm their children’s prospects in life. But they agreed that opinion might change as people become more and more aware of the capacity of the medical profession to allow parents to create children when it was not possible before and the idea of donor conception might become better understood and more tolerated. That is why it needs to be reviewed. I am perfectly happy that the review should be carried out by the department. I am not happy that it should rest solely on what the noble Baroness said last time when she assured noble Lords, "““that we will continue to keep under review options about informing donor-conceived people about their conception””.—[Official Report, 28/1/08; col. 511.]" I think by that she meant the birth certificate question. As I said then, I have been around for long enough to know that departments can keep things under review for an astonishingly long time without actually doing anything. I want to see something in the Bill. I had been led to believe that this amendment might be accepted by the Government, but I have since been led to believe that that might be difficult. I think that the noble Baroness’s heart is in the right place but she is contending with a departmental attitude that is very deeply ingrained. At this stage in her career she is not in a position to change that. I am perhaps anticipating what she will say, but we must have something in the Bill. That must be agreed either in this House or in another place. I beg to move.