Speeches by McKenna.

“What are the risks of people being persuaded to freeze their eggs or take up IVF largely so that companies can profit from their eggs? How do you reassure yourselves that this is not happening?”

“I am picturing this as being like booking a budget airline ticket, where there are lots of extra costs that come in afterward; it is not always clear at the start.”

“How transparent are these costs ahead of people enlisting for these services? Do people see that full rate set out and is it completely transparent?”

“It is not just a matter of quality but the cost to the people using the services. Do you think private equity has an impact on that?”

“You have already told us that the vast majority of people using services at these clinics are paying for them themselves, which is quite different to much of the health system in this country. I would like to explore what is driving the cost. We have heard that increasingly many clinics are being taken over by private …”

“My heart also goes out to everyone affected by this terrible and unfolding tragedy. I think particularly of my constituents in Sittingbourne and Sheppey, many of whom are students who attend the universities in Canterbury or who go to school in Faversham. Many are staff there, too. It will be particularly hard on my co…”

“I have often raised a bit of a wry gay smile at a lot of this, because some of it is actually very familiar. To follow on from what David said, there has always been a bit of a trend of guys who are not comfortable with their sexuality overcompensating publicly, and that was what we picked up on in that interaction. Fr…”

“Thank you both; this is really good stuff so far. It has helped me to understand a lot more about what is going on and what is pulling people into the manosphere. There is a real feeling that it is becoming more and more popular and it is a little amorphous to people who may not be engaged with it. Mr Blake, when you w…”

“The demonetisation and deplatforming that you talked about has clearly had some impacts. Could we do more of this stuff long term? Is that really the route to tackling a lot of this?”

“That is really useful to hear. You talked about the social media ban, Mr Blake, and you were meeting particularly younger users—I do not know what we call them; perhaps people in the manosphere. What is your take on a social media ban at 16? Do you think that could be an effective tool?”

“Are they automated? Are they robots crawling?”

“What is the economic engine for this? Where is the money flowing through to these clippers?”

“We talked about the ban for under-16s. Is this an under-16s problem, or even a men-in-their-20s problem? It wasn’t when I was 18 and everyone said I was an adult that I felt like I was a man; it was in my late 20s. What age groups are we really talking about here? That really impacts on whether an under-16 ban is going…”

“If each clinic is different, how widespread do you think the practice of going into university freshers weeks and advertising is?”

“I would just like to ask a few questions about how you tell users about your services and how you advertise what you are doing. Emily, how does your clinic present its success rate for egg freezing?”

“Geetha, we have heard reports that egg donation is being advertised at university freshers fairs. What is your take on that, particularly the ethics around that sort of approach?”

“Are there barriers in the processes you have or are innate to anything clinically that maybe stop things from being as transparent as people would expect in any service that they use? Are there things that you cannot measure, or things that stop you from being as transparent as you would maybe like to be?”

“Have you looked at the even wider impacts in terms of things like the Government’s commitment to halve violence against women and girls and public health impacts of some of the work that you are doing? Have you looked at and modelled what CIISA’s role is in that?”

“The question I was about to ask as a follow-up from that is has anyone from the Government or civil service approached you about that? What was the response?”

“It is not backed by any statutory backstop. Do you think we need to progress to that, having your position in terms of funding backed—I cannot even say the word now, which is unfortunate for a parliamentarian—by a statutory backstop? Do you think we need that level of legal support?”