TWO Basingstoke hospital employees are to be charged over the missing embryos controversy.

They will be the first people ever to be prosecuted under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act of 1990.

A Hampshire Police spokeswoman told The Gazette: "Following a lengthy investigation by detectives at Basingstoke into a complaint of alleged irregularities in the storage of cryo-preserved material at the North Hampshire Hospital Trust Fertility Centre and the Hampshire Clinic Assisted Conception Unit, Basingstoke, two men have been reported to the Crown Prosecution Service.

"A 42-year-old man was reported for alleged assault, deception, false accounting and offences under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act.

"A 45-year-old man was reported for alleged offences under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act.

"They will receive summonses in due course, instructing them to appear before magistrates and, when they attend court, criminal charges will be put to them.

"No date for their court appearance has yet been fixed. It is expected to be in the autumn.

"What charges they will face is a matter for the CPS. We are not naming the two men at this stage.

"These are thought to represent the first legal proceedings under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act."

Basingstoke hospital has confirmed that both men are currently suspended. An 11-month police investigation began last year when a Sussex couple made a complaint of deception.

Police inquiries revealed that a set of human eggs in frozen storage at the private Hampshire Clinic at Old Basing had gone missing. The clinic had been paying for embryology services from Basingstoke hospital.

Thirty nine couples - 10 from the hospital - had to be told they could not have children using embryos in frozen storage because of a labelling mix-up.

A confidential helpline was set up for women who feared their babies were not biologically theirs or that their embryos had been implanted in other women. They were offered DNA tests to prove their babies were their own.

In addition to the police investigation, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority - a regulatory body - has carried out its own inquiry. Its findings have been passed on to Health Secretary Alan Milburn - but the report has not been made public because of the criminal investigation.

Carol Friend, of the Hampshire Clinic, said: "Everyone on whom this case has had an impact will be pleased to see evidence of progress towards a final outcome. "We now have to wait for due process through the courts and we would not want to prejudice that by saying anything at this stage."

Mark Davies, chief executive of the North Hants Hospital NHS Trust, said: "I would like to reiterate my apologies on behalf of the trust for all the distress and worry this has caused the patients and their relatives. I have written to those involved to keep them informed and will continue to do so."