• Change will empower future parents and give them even greater control over fertility choices
• Storage limits will no longer be governed by medical need

People across the UK will have more choice over when to start a family as the government sets out plans to increase the storage limits for eggs, sperm and embryos.

Following a public consultation last year, proposals will be introduced to increase the statutory storage limits for everyone from the current 10 years, to a 10 year renewable storage period up to a maximum of 55 years.

Under the new system, prospective parents will be given the option at 10 year intervals to keep or dispose of frozen eggs, sperm and embryos.

This update not only ensures greater reproductive choice and less pressured decision-making for parents thinking about when to start a family, it will ensures greater equality as the same rules will apply to everyone and storage limits will not be dictated by medical need.

Health and Social Care Secretary, Sajid Javid, said:

The current storage arrangements can be severely restrictive for those making the important decision about when to start a family, and this new legislation will help turn off the ticking clock in the back of people’s minds.

There are any number of reasons why someone may choose to preserve their fertility, and it is one of the most personal decisions any of us can make. Technological breakthroughs – including in egg freezing – have changed the equation in recent years and its only right that this progress puts more power into the hands of potential parents.

By making these changes, we are going to take a huge step forwards – not just for giving people greater freedom over their fertility, but for equality too.

The proposed changes are made possible by using the latest freezing methods. Evidence shows frozen eggs can be stored indefinitely without deterioration, due to a new freezing technique called vitrification, and changes reflect the increasing success of using frozen embryos in routine IVF treatment.

It would be inappropriate for the limit to apply to all cases so there will be additional conditions around third party donors and posthumous use. This will be consulted upon separately.

Julia Chain, Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) Chair, said:

We welcome the government’s plans to extend the storage limit for frozen eggs, sperm and embryos, bringing the law in line with advances in science, changes in modern society and individuals’ reproductive choices.

This is great news for patients, giving them more time to make important decisions about family planning.

Any decision to store or preserve eggs, sperm or embryos is a serious one and anyone considering this must be given full information on the procedures involved, including the best time to freeze and likelihood of successfully using them to have a baby in future.

It is important that the new rules are clear and that fertility clinics are given adequate time to update their procedures to ensure they can both implement the changes effectively and give patients sufficient information so that they are fully informed about their options.

Minister for Innovation, Lord Bethell said:

People across the UK are starting families later in life and it is increasingly commonplace for people to choose to freeze their eggs, sperm and embryos to preserve fertility. There are myriad reasons for this, such as not being ready or able to start a family or having a medical condition that can lead to premature infertility.

Prospective parents should not have to wrestle with time limits on their fertility choices, and this important change to storage timescales will give people more control over their future and eliminate the pressure that comes with knowing a decision has to be made within 10 years.

Supportive quotes

Raj Mathur, Chair of the British Fertility Society (BFA) said:

The British Fertility Society welcomes the Government’s changes to the statutory maximum storage period for eggs, sperm and embryos. Technological advances mean that storage of reproductive material is a safe and effective way of protecting fertility for many individuals.

This change ensures that UK regulation is compliant with the scientific evidence about the safety of storage, and protects the ability of all our patients to make reproductive choices for themselves as individuals and couples.

As professionals delivering care in this field, we are delighted that our advocacy has resulted in a change for the better for our patients, reducing unintended discrimination and protecting autonomy.

We look forward to working with the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to ensure clinics are supported to implement this change. We also call upon NHS commissioners to ensure that the required improvements to services are implemented fairly and all patients are able to benefit from this welcome change.

Jason Kasarie, Chair of ARCS said:

The proposed changes are a welcome improvement for the sector and most importantly our patients.

The current storage limits have in some cases negatively impacted upon reproductive choice for couples by placing an artificial deadline, which would not be faced by those attempting to conceive naturally, on treatment.

The proposed, fairer, storage limits will help to alleviate unnecessary stress for our patients and streamline the process of storage for assisted conception clinics.

Background

• The legislation will be introduced when parliamentary time allows.

Thousands of pre-school children will benefit from improved language, numeracy and personal, social and emotional skills, thanks to a programme of high-quality training and professional development support for early years staff.

The Early Years Professional Development Programme (PDP) is to be extended to around 50 new local authorities across England in 2021/22, the Department for Education has announced today (6 September).

The £10 million extension, building on £20 million already invested in the programme since 2019 as part of the Government’s efforts to narrow the attainment gap in the early years, is aimed at levelling up upcomes for children, particularly the most disadvantaged, between the ages of two and four by providing high-quality training and professional development support for staff in nurseries and preschools, or childminders.

Up to 2,000 early years practitioners and teachers in the new areas will benefit from high-quality online training delivered directly by experienced trainers, reaching up to 32,000 pre-school children across the country. The local authorities who will benefit from the additional training support will be confirmed later in the autumn.

Children and Families Minister Vicky Ford said:

We know high-quality early years education can make an enormous difference to the outcomes of our youngest children, not just in their language and numeracy but also their social and emotional development, helping to give them the best possible start to life. This is more important than ever as we build back from the pandemic.

This programme will play a central role in equipping our important early years staff with the high-quality training they deserve, so that they can support children at the very beginning of their education, enabling them to build on these skills with confidence as they grow up.

The second phase of the Early Years Professional Development Programme is for one-year, delivered by Education Development Trust in partnership with Elklan providing high quality, evidence-based and fully-funded professional development for early years practitioners from schools and private, voluntary and independent early years settings.

As part of this, the Department will also be providing online professional development training, developed by the Anna Freud Centre, targeted at Personal, Social and Emotional Development for two to four-year-olds in direct response to the Covid-19 pandemic to ensure that children’s mental health and wellbeing is prioritised. The training also includes a focus on staff wellbeing and will be rolled out as part of the second phase of PDP from January 2022.

Also announced earlier this year as part of the Government’s education recovery support package, the Department confirmed an additional £153m investment over three academic years from 2021/22 for training for early years staff to support the learning and development of children. This will provide the opportunity for evidence-based professional development for early years practitioners, including through new programmes focusing on key areas such as speech and language development as well as support for early years staff and leaders to implement our Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework reforms. Further details on this recovery investment will be provided shortly.

In addition to the support for the very youngest children, the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme has also helped an estimated 60,000 four and five-year-olds to date and will improve outcomes in Reception age children’s early language, communication and speech. Now in its second wave, every state school can benefit from training and resources to support thousands more pupils to become confident with these vital skills.

The revised Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework also became statutory from September this year and sets the standards to ensure children learn and develop well, helping to improve their outcomes at age 5, particularly in early language and literacy. It aims to strengthen early years curriculum, as well as assessment and practice to improve outcomes and close the gap for disadvantaged children.

• G20 countries must stand up for the rights of people taking part in life-saving COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials to protect future medical break-throughs, Sajid Javid will say
• G20 meetings in Rome will focus on recovering from COVID-19 and better preventing, detecting and responding to global health threats

The rights of vaccine clinical trial volunteers must be safeguarded to help protect everyone against future health crises, Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid will tell G20 health leaders in Rome today (Sunday 5 September).

Attending his first international meeting of global health leaders since becoming Secretary of State, Sajid Javid will push for the UK’s COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial participants to have their vaccination status recognised globally.

This expands on the commitment made at the G7 Health Ministers’ Meeting – held in Oxford earlier this year – to protect the freedoms of those who helped pioneer medical advances and save lives around the world.

The UK has been a leading force in identifying new treatments and vaccines during the pandemic, with clinical trials resulting in the ground-breaking discovery of dexamethasone for treating serious COVID-19 cases – saving more than a million lives globally. It has also supported the scientific research, clinical trial and at-cost production of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine which has now shipped tens of millions of doses globally.

Vaccine clinical trials

Many British citizens who took part in vaccine clinical trials to tackle COVID-19 have not had their status recognised for overseas certification purposes, because the vaccine they received is not yet approved for use in their destination country. This may mean they have to quarantine on arrival and cannot access certain settings where vaccine certification schemes are in place.

The government is committed to seeing a safe and sustainable return to international travel, and continuing to lead the way to make sure this is inclusive of clinical trial participants in the UK and beyond.

Under our amber arrivals policy, if a person is arriving from a country where the UK already exempts fully vaccinated travellers from quarantining, trial participants that have adequate proof of their participation in a trial will also be exempt from quarantining. We are proud to publicly recognise their vital role in the ongoing global efforts to combat the pandemic.

Health and Social Care Secretary, Sajid Javid said:

The UK has been a trailblazer in clinical trials during the pandemic and we must harness that progress to fight future health threats.

If those who go above and beyond by taking part in clinical trials are disadvantaged in activities such as overseas travel, it threatens the future of medical break-throughs and our ability to combat health threats.

Participants put themselves forward to benefit the global community and without them, the lives of millions of people worldwide would be in danger due to a lack of progress on new treatments and vaccines.

I will be urging my G20 health ministerial counterparts to stand up for the rights of those who have helped protect us all and ensure they can live their lives unhindered.

The UK is now embarking on a range of vital studies to monitor the impact of vaccines on pregnant women and teenagers as well as the impact of new vaccines, boosters and mixing types of vaccine. Recruitment is ongoing for these studies and the government is committed to ensuring people are not discouraged from participating and minimise the risk of drop out, by working hard to meet their needs.

Vaccines Clinical Trials Charter

At the UK-hosted G7 health meetings, representatives from some of the world’s largest democracies committed to a new Therapeutics and Vaccines Clinical Trials Charter, making it easier and quicker to share results from vaccine and therapeutic trials to tackle COVID-19 and prevent future health threats.

This will help deliver high-quality, reliable and comparable evidence from international clinical trials to speed up access to approved treatments and vaccines, benefitting people in the UK and globally. It will also include greater diversity of participants, including pregnant people and children.

The Health and Social Care Secretary will also speak to his ministerial counterparts about the need to improve vaccine confidence around the world, helping tackle dangerous misinformation and targeting communications through impactful routes for people from different backgrounds.

The government has expanded the Community Champions Scheme so that communities have trusted local leaders who can help answer questions about the vaccine and work with the NHS and public health teams to support local communities. Overall the UK has one of the highest vaccine uptake rates in the world and vaccine hesitancy has fallen among ethnic minority groups from 22% in the Jan-Feb survey to 9% at the most recent wave (May-June).

Over 91 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered across the UK, with nearly 80% of everyone aged over 16 receiving both doses, including more than 50% of those aged 18-29 being double jabbed.

Background

• The G20 Health Ministers’ Meeting will be held in Rome on 5 and 6 September. It will focus on promoting strong cooperation, including towards ending the COVID-19 pandemic and supporting recovery, as well as work to better prevent, detect and respond to global health threats and emergencies.