HC Deb 23 November 1995 vol 267 c329W
Mrs. Ann Winterton

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the ethical issues arising from the Medical Research Council project at the Centre for Brain Repair involving the use of tissue from aborted babies; what steps are taken to ensure that the mothers of those babies are made aware of the purpose for which their dead children are being used; if he will indicate the cost of the project; and he will list the consultations which were undertaken with the public and interested organisations before the granting of the necessary approval for the project to proceed. [1343]

Mr. Sackville

I understand that the project is still at the planning stage and as yet no human tissue has being used, but future studies using human fetal tissue are being considered. Any such studies will follow the strict guidelines of the Polkinghorne report, Cm 762. Its recommendations, which were accepted by the Government and the British Medical Association, were that such tissue could be used for research and treatment. Such experimental proposals will be subjected to the appropriate scrutiny when they are submitted to the local research ethics committee.

Mrs. Winterton

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will list all those projects for which licences have been issued in each of the last five years and which have involved the use of tissue from aborted babies, indicating in each case the number of aborted babies involved; and if he will list the steps which his Department has taken in each of those cases to ensure that the provisions of the Polkinghorne report have been implemented; [1344]

(2) what administrative and reporting procedures are undertaken by his Department to monitor the issuing of licences for projects involving the use of tissue from aborted babies. [1345]

Mr. Sackville

Local research ethics committees—LRECs—advise within every health district on the acceptability of research proposals involving human subjects and human foetal tissue. Departmental guidance on the functions of LRECs includes the Polkinghorne code of practice, copies of which are available in the Library. The Department of Health does not collect information about research proposals approved by LRECs.