HC Deb 26 October 1998 vol 318 c18W
Mr. Hoyle

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on Royal Navy experimental radiation treatment for civilian divers. [55368]

Mr. Doug Henderson

The Royal Navy has never carried out experimental radiation treatment on civilian divers. Imaging techniques, involving low doses of short lived radio-active isotopes have been used as part of clinical investigations to determine whether any brain damage had occurred as a result of various diseases including decompression illness. Similar techniques have been in common use for many years in the nuclear medicine departments of NHS hospitals throughout the country.