In the United Kingdom, following animal experiments and the recommendations of a government commissioned expert committee, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Research Purposes) Regulations were passed in 2001 regulating and allowing research into human embryos. In 2004, Newcastle University applied for a license to develop pronuclear transfer to avoid the transmission of mitochondrial diseases, and was granted the license in 2005. Following further research by Newcastle and the Wellcome Trust, scientific review, public consultations, and debate, the UK government recommended that mitochondrial donation be legalized in 2013. In 2015 parliament passed the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Mitochondrial Donation) Regulations, which came into force on 29 October 2015, making human mitochondrial donation legal in the UK. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) was authorized to license and regulate medical centers which wanted to use human mitochondrial donation. In February 2016, the US National Academy of Sciences issued a report describing technologies then current and the surrounding ethical issues.
The HFEA Safety Committee issued its fourth report in November 2016 recommending procedures under which HFEA should authorize MRT, the HFEA issued their regulations in December 2016 and granted their first license (to Newcastle Fertility Centre; Newcastle upon Tyne Hospital NHS Foundation Trust led by Dr Jane Stewart as Person Responsible to the HFEA) in March 2017. Between August 2017 and January 2019, the HFEA received 15 requests from women to undergo MRT, of which 14 were granted. As of 2020, if children have been born from these procedures, the details have not been published because of the wishes of the parents.
Douglass Turnbull, the driving force behind mitochondrial research at Newcastle University, was awarded a knighthood in 2016.