§ The Countess of Marasked Her Majesty's Government:
Which institutions (a) that are government-owned; or (b) in which National Health Service work is carried out; or (c) in which Department of Health-funded work is carried out, or (d) in which Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs work is carried out, conduct human exposure testing for agrochemical companies or human risk assessments on agrochemicals; and whether any have contracts with Inveresk Research Group Inc or Inveresk Research (Elphinstone Research Centre) to conduct human risk assessments on agrochemicals. [HL1735]
§ Lord WarnerIt is not possible to provide the information requested.
137WAInformation is not held centrally on which government-owned institutions operate as contract research organisations and carry out research on human exposure testing on agrochemicals or human risk assessments for the agrochemical industry.
The Department of Health, the National Health Service, and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs each have an extensive research programme covering a large number of contractors. Information regarding which of these also carry out work relating to human risk assessment for the agrochemical industry is not held.
The Pesticides Safety Directorate (PSD) is the regulatory agency that is responsible for the approval of agricultural pesticides in the United Kingdom. It does not require or commission human volunteer studies on pesticides as part of the approvals process. Neither government departments nor PSD have any legal control over privately funded research carried out at privately owned research laboratories. There are well established standards for the control of such studies based on the ethical standards set down by the Helsinki Convention and implemented in the UK through guidelines set by the Royal College of Physicians. PSD will accept human study data for regulatory purposes only if these standards are met.