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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill

I am happy to give exactly the same undertakings as Lord Darzi gave in another place. [Interruption.] My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State says, ““Thank goodness for that.”” The hon. Member for Enfield, Southgate (Mr. Burrowes) is right that cloning is outlawed. I would like to reassure hon. Members that I am speaking on behalf of the Government at this stage, not as an individual, as that way of speaking seems to have drifted in and out of the debate. The Bill is a means of ensuring that effective regulation applies and that we can undertake research. As the hon. Member for Buckingham said, the Bill will not force anyone to undertake research using embryos, whether admixed or otherwise. The controls that the measures put in place will ensure that other avenues of research will be considered as part of the research licensing process. Before a licence is given, the licensing authorities will have to consider other areas or forms of research in which the same issues could be pursued. Several issues have been raised in the debate, and I shall do my best to answer some of them in the time available. The hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr. Lansley) talked about true hybrids, which were allowed in the 1990 Act for testing the fertility of sperm by mixing it with a hamster egg, and for related research. Any licence application will have to pass the usual tests of satisfying the HFEA that it is necessary or desirable for a statutory research purpose and that the specific use of embryos is necessary. That will give a great deal of protection. The Bill will bring all forms of true hybrids under the regulation of the HFEA, and it will be for the HFEA to decide whether such hybrids should be licensed. We are talking about wider types which will be licensed only under the specific research licence. If we do not bring those processes within the Bill's protection, we will not be able to express views or control; the law will be silent about the developments. I turn to the point on what is called the need for a father.