§ Lord Alton of Liverpoolasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the work to be undertaken on human cloning at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh will be subject to legislation of the Scottish Parliament or whether it is covered by a reserved power; and what rights the Scottish Parliament will have to debate issues such as cloning, human embryo experimentation, abortion and genetic engineering. [HL2721]
§ Lord SewelThe subject matter of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, which enables human reproductive cloning to be forbidden in the United Kingdom, is a reserved matter in terms of the Scotland Act 1998, and therefore outwith the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament.
There are no constraints on the issues which the Scottish Parliament can debate. Notwithstanding that, where reserved matters such as human genetics, abortion and human embryology are concerned. the Parliament has no legislative competence.