§ Lord Gordon of Strathblaneasked Her Majesty's Government:
What plans they have for epidemiological research on Porton Down volunteers. [HL4638]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach)The Ministry of Defence has accepted a recommendation by the Medical Research Council (MRC) to fund research to be undertaken by Dr Kate Venables of Oxford University and colleagues from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Imperial College, London. This research will consist of a one-year pilot study to assess the incidence of mortality and cancer amongst a selected group of 500 Porton Down volunteers compared with a control group of 500 other members of the Armed Forces and a small-scale questionnaire study to evaluate volunteers' own views of their health status.
The pilot study will commence later this month and will take about a year to complete. The MRC will be in a position towards the end of the pilot study to advise MoD whether the available historical data are of sufficient quality and quantity to allow a full-scale epidemiological study to proceed.