§ Mr. HavardTo ask the Secretary of State for Health who, on behalf of his Department, is conducting the assessment into the possible exclusion of transfusion recipients giving blood; and how many years in retrospect the assessment will cover. [42794]
§ Yvette Cooper[holding answer 12 March 2002]: The Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Blood and Tissues has asked the Department's Economics and Operational Research Division to assess the impact of excluding transfusion recipients from donating blood on possible secondary infections of variant CJD, assuming blood to be infective. This risk assessment is still in progress and consequently no decision has been taken into the possible exclusion of transfusion recipients giving blood.