§ Mr. AmessTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many frozen embryos are currently in storage in the United Kingdom. [37272]
§ Ms JowellThis figure is not available. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 requires clinics to notify the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) when embryos are stored or used. There are some embryos which were stored before the 1990 Act came into force. Clinics were not required to notify the HFEA of these.
According to the most recent verified information held by the HFEA between 1 August 1991 to 31 March 1996 the number of embryos put into frozen storage during the course of an IVF treatment cycle was 105,317. The number of female patients who stored embryos from IVF cycles during that period was 17,254.