Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-07-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Public Health, Jane Ellison, on 1 June (HC38011 and HC38012), why the content of the personal email exchange between Professor Grifo and a member of the expert panel had to be provided in confidence to the expert panel convened by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority if wider disclosure of such unredacted information would not breach patient confidentiality; and why the relevant information in question was not sought from Professor Grifo until sometime after the third Scientific Review of the safety and efficacy of methods to avoid mitochondrial disease in 2014.

Lord Prior of Brampton

As the noble Lord is aware, the email exchange between Professor Grifo and the Expert Panel member was private and provided in confidence. That email will not, therefore, be made public. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has advised that the information in question was not sought in the previous reviews because the abstract published by Professor Grifo was not submitted to the Authority as part of any formal calls for evidence.