Lord Patten – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Patten on 2014-06-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 14 May (WA 499), what is their assessment of whether issuing guidance by amending the wording of form HSA1 would represent an act of secondary legislation or a change in the Abortion Act 1967.

Earl Howe

Any changes to the wording of the HSA1 form, if needed, would require changes to secondary legislation. Such changes could not be introduced through guidance, which makes no changes to abortion legislation.