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Lord Greaves asked Her Majesty's Government:
What evidence they have of the effect of the buy-to-let market in housing market renewal Pathfinder areas on house prices, house conditions, social conditions and community structures; and whether they intend to commission research on these matters. [HL4404]
Baroness Andrews: The department regularly monitors market conditions and market drivers in the housing market renewal Pathfinder areas. As part of an ongoing national evaluation of the market renewal programme by Ecotec, a paper on buy-to-let activity was published in March 2007, National Evaluation of Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders, Thematic Paper, Buy-to-Let Housing Market in the HMR Pathfinders. We will continue to keep market conditions under review as we consider the next stages of the programme.
Lord Greaves asked Her Majesty's Government:
What advice they have given to housing market renewal Pathfinders on providing assistance for home owners who are required to move as a result of demolition of their homes, when they need to bridge the financial gap between the market value paid for their existing property and the cost of purchasing a replacement property; and, in particular, whether such assistance should be provided by means of grants or loans or other means. [HL4403]
Baroness Andrews: Advice on the operation of the housing market renewal programme is provided through regular correspondence and meetings with
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Human Tissue and Embryos Bill (Draft)
Lord Alton of Liverpool asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether, under the terms of the Human Tissue and Embryos (Draft) Bill, animal chimeras, where human cells are inserted into animal embryos, will be unregulated; and, if so, whether the Bill permits their transfer to an animal womb; and [HL4341]
Whether the Human Tissue and Embryos (Draft) Bill permits a procedure involving tetraploid complementation using an animal embryo consisting of tetraploid animal cells with diploid human cells added, thereby enabling the resulting human embryo to develop in an animal womb; and, if not, which clauses of the draft Bill would prevent this; and [HL4342]
Whether the Human Tissue and Embryos (Draft) Bill permits animal chimeras consisting of animal embryos with added human embryonic stem cells, which could develop human gametes or brain cells in the growing entity, to be implanted into animals; and, if not, which clauses in the draft Bill would prevent this; and [HL4343]
Whether the Human Tissue and Embryos (Draft) Bill permits animal chimeras generated from animal embryos consisting of any proportion of animal and human cells to be implanted into an animal; and, if not, which clauses in the draft Bill would prevent, limit or regulate such a procedure. [HL4344]
The Minister of State, Department of Health (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): As indicated in the introduction of the Command Paper, Human Tissue and Embryos (Draft) Bill (Cm 7087), we propose that the creation of chimera embryos, which are produced by the addition of animal cells to a human embryo, as defined in new Section 4A(5)(d) of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, set out in Clause 17(2) of the Human Tissue and Embryos (Draft) Bill, may be authorised by research licence.
Chimera embryos created by the addition of human cells to an animal embryo are not within the regulatory framework set out in the draft Bill. These chimeras, made using animal embryos, are regulated under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 at such time as they become a protected animal under that Act. Any embryos not considered to be a protected animal do not come within the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act. This position is both the existing and prospective position regarding animal inter-species research.
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Under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 an animal will become a protected animal from the halfway point of its gestation.
The placement of an animal-human chimera embryo in an animal’s uterus is a regulated procedure under the 1986 Act and so would fall within its scope.
New Sections 4A(1) and 4A(4), set out in Clause 17(2) of the draft Bill, propose a prohibition on the implantation of human-animal chimera embryos, as defined in new Section 4A(5)(d), in the uterus of a human or of an animal.
Lord Alton of Liverpool asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the proposed new Section 4A(5)(e) of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 set out in Clause 17(2) of the Human Tissue and Embryos (Draft) Bill is intended to apply only to conventional hybrids generated by cross-species fertilisation. [HL4345]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: True hybrids, created by the cross-fertilisation of human and animal gametes, are captured by the proposed new Section 4A(5)(a), set out in Clause 17(2) of the Human Tissue and Embryos (Draft) Bill and are therefore exempt from the scope of new Section 4A(5)(e). New Section 4A(5)(e) captures those embryos created to be genetically identical to a true hybrid without the application of cross-species fertilisation.
New Section 4A(5)(e) also captures any other combination of human-animal genetic material, outside of the inter-species categories in proposed new Section 4A(5)(a) to (d), that contains at least a haploid set of human chromosomes.
Lord Alton of Liverpool asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether animal chimeras are (a) subject to the 14-day rule; (b) unregulated until half the gestation period of the animal, after which they would fall under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986; (c) permitted to be taken to term in an animal womb and be born, under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986; and, if not, what legislation would prevent animal chimeras being taken to term. [HL4350]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: As indicated in the introduction of the Command Paper Human Tissue and Embryos (Draft) Bill (Cm 7087), we propose that the creation of chimera embryos which are produced by the addition of animal cells to a human embryo, as defined in new Section 4A(5)(d) of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, set out in Clause 17(2) of the Human Tissue and Embryos (Draft) Bill, may be authorised by research licence.
Chimera embryos created by the addition of human cells to an animal embryo are not within the regulatory framework as set out in the draft Bill and are therefore not subject to the 14-day rule.
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These chimeras made using animal embryos are regulated under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 at such time as they become a protected animal under that Act. Any embryos not considered to be a protected animal do not come within the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act. This position is both the existing and prospective position regarding animal inter-species research.
Under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, an animal will become a protected animal from the halfway point of its gestation.
The placement of an embryo into an animal's uterus for an experimental or other scientific purpose is a regulated procedure for the recipient animal under the 1986 Act and so would fall within its scope whether or not the pregnancy is subsequently terminated.
Chimera embryos placed into the uterus that develop beyond halfway through gestation will also themselves be deemed to be protected animals having undergone regulated procedures. Any such animal use would have to be carried out within a licensed programme of work that had been subject to a proper cost-benefit assessment as required by Section 5(4) of the 1986 Act.
Lord Alton of Liverpool asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the proposed new Section 4A(5)(e) of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, set out in Clause 17(2) of the Human Tissue and Embryos (Draft) Bill, would apply equally to an inter-species embryo at any stage of pre-implantation development that contains haploid human chromosomes or any multiple thereof (whether euploid or aneuploid) and genetic material from another species either in the same cells or in different constituent cells and regardless of the chromosomal ploidy of contributing material from another species; and [HL4351]
Whether the proposed new Section 4A(5)(e) of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, set out in Clause 17(2) of the Human Tissue and Embryos (Draft) Bill, would apply to any interspecies embryo containing any possible number or combination of copies of the haploid complement of human chromosomes and those of another species; and, if so, whether the Down's mouse model (containing a human chromosome and the diploid complement of a mouse) would now be illegal, as the corresponding interspecies embryo must be implanted in the womb of an animal. [HL4352]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: The intention of the proposed new Section 4A(5)(e) of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, set out in Clause 17(2) of the Human Tissue and Embryos (Draft) Bill, is to ensure that the creation of interspecies embryos with at least a haploid set of human chromosomes are caught by the regulatory provisions of the Act. It is not intended to capture animal embryos altered at a later stage to contain human cells.
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The purpose of publishing the Bill in draft form is to enable the policies and principles it contains, and its detailed drafting, to be tested and reviewed if appropriate. We are reviewing the detailed drafting of new Section 4A(5)(e), taking into account, for instance, the report of the Academy of Medical Sciences on hybrids, published on 17 June 2007.
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