The Health and Care Act 2022 amended the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 to change the way embryo and gamete storage periods work with the aim of making the system fair to everyone. Unfortunately, the exact mechanics of this change have proved complex.
The new storage provisions included a transitional period to allow the changes to be implemented, ending on 30 June 2024. By this date, licensed clinics in the UK were required to inform all patients with material in storage prior to the commencement of the transitional period and whose consent would expire before the end of the transitional period that they must renew their consents if they wished to extend storage. For gametes, if patients failed to renew their consent by 30 June 2024, the new rules provide that their consent was deemed to have been withdrawn and the gametes should therefore have been removed from storage on 1 July 2024. For embryos, if patients failed to renew their consent by 30 June 2024, the new rules provide that their consent was deemed to have been withdrawn. Clinics may, however, continue to store the embryos lawfully until 31 December 2024, but the patients’ consent could not be renewed during this time and the embryos could not be used.
For varying reasons, a significant number of patients did not renew their consent before 30 June 2024. We are acting for a growing number of these patients and obtained an interim declaration on 23 December permitting material to remain in storage beyond 31 December 2024 pending a full hearing of the patients’ applications.
The court indicated that it is possible to add further claimants before the end of the year, so if you are aware of any patients who may wish to join this wider application, please do put them in touch with us urgently on storage@ldmhpartners.com or 01904 900914.
