§ Mrs. ClwydTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list all funds or grants made available to National Health Service laboratories, hospitals or consultants for the purpose of conducting research on HIV infection or AIDS by the following organisations: (i) the Wellcome Foundation, (ii) Burroughs Wellcome, (iii)536W Abbot Laboratories, (iv) du Pont and (v) Glaxo, identifying the organisation, amount, principal recipient and purpose of grant.
§ Mr. NewtonSuch information is not held centrally. However, the Department is administering, at the request of Abbot Laboratories, the allocation of £65,000 set aside by Abbot for travel fellowships, to allow health care professionals who are undertaking research into AIDS or HIV infection to travel to the United states of America to meet other researchers working in the same field. So far eight fellowships have been awarded.
§ Mrs. ClwydTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he has authorised for use within the National Health Service any anti-HIV antibody test which has not previously been the subject of an evaluation as to efficiency conducted by or on behalf of his Department.
§ Mr. NewtonAnti-HIV antibody tests employed in the National Health Service do not require authorisation from the Department.
The Department seeks to evaluate commercially available HIV tests on a systematic basis, and makes the reports of these evaluations available to the NHS and other interested parties, but we do not authorise particular test kits.