§ 20. Mr. Laurence RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects to introduce legislation to ban the cloning of human beings; and if he will make a statement. [3783]
§ Ms BlearsHuman reproductive cloning cannot and will not be carried out in the United Kingdom. Treatment using human embryos requires a licence from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which has stated that it would not issue a licence for reproductive cloning. Anybody carrying out such treatment without a licence would be guilty of a criminal offence. We will introduce primary legislation to put this ban on a statutory footing as soon as parliamentary time allows.