HC Deb 29 October 1996 vol 284 c94W
Mr. Hinchliffe

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the implications for his policy on bovine spongiform encephalopathy and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease of the latest medical findings of Professor John Collinge. [841]

Mr. Horam

There are no implications for our policy on bovine spongiform encephalopathy and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in Professor Collinge's latest findings.

Professor Collinge has provided the first experimental evidence to support the view that there may be a link between bovine spongiform encephalopathy and new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease—nvCJD. All the measures we have taken since 1989 to protect public health have been taken on the assumption that exposure to BSE could cause disease in humans and these latest findings do not change that.