Ten fertility clinics have been ordered to refrain from offering treatment to couples after failing to comply with a deadline.
The order is pending inspection and issuance of a licence.
The 10 clinics are among 61 institutions which applied for a licence from the Council on Human Reproductive Technology by a January 31 deadline. Fifty-one can continue their services without problems.
But 10 clinics cannot, the council said, because they did not notify the council they were giving fertility treatment by an earlier deadline of August 31 last year. The clinics then had until January 31 to submit their licence applications.
The two-step transitional arrangements went into force on August 1 last year when subsidiary legislation required clinics to obtain licences before they could offer services.
'Without serving the notice, 10 centres concerned therefore cannot carry on the relevant activity before a licence is granted,' a spokesman for the council said.
