HC Deb 13 December 1988 vol 143 c548W
36. Mr. Holt

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what new arrangements his Department is planning to ensure that untried and untested medical diagnoses are properly validated before acceptance within the profession and the courts.

Mrs. Currie

No new arrangements are planned. It is a matter for the clinical judgment of individual clinicians to decide what use they should make of novel diagnostic techniques. On occasion, to assist the medical profession, we issue guidance with the help of the standing medical advisory committee, as with the diagnosis of child sexual abuse. The courts reach their decisions on the basis of the evidence put to them.