Health: Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies

Countess of Mar Excerpts

Monday 13th June 2011 Lords Chamber

Asked By

[The Countess of Mar]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are their proposals for continuing research into human and animal transmissible spongiform encephalopathies.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Earl Howe)]

My Lords, the Government continue to invest considerable funds in this research. I am pleased to note that the risk from BSE has declined significantly, and that cases of variant CJD peaked in 1999 and have declined ever since. The Government intend to continue to fund this research in order to ensure that policies are based on the best possible science and that there is evidence of efficacy, safety and cost-benefit for any measures implemented.

[The Countess of Mar]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Earl for that encouraging reply, because there have been rumours that the TSE research by the Health Protection Agency at Porton Down was to be “downsized”, as they say. Does the noble Earl agree that it is very important that we retain our knowledge acquired since the 1950s, when researchers were looking at scrapie, and that it is rather dangerous to put all our eggs in one basket? We ought to encourage lots of researchers to keep up to date, because these little prions seem to have naughty ways. What is happening to the archives for TSE conditions, which really ought to be called neurodegenerative diseases?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, the Government are committed to continuing research in TSEs. Many fundamental questions remain unanswered and the research is, by its nature, long term. Considerable funding is provided by a number of bodies—not only the Department of Health, but the Medical Research Council, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Defra and the Food Standards Agency. The total funding last year was in excess of £20 million, and I should add that the DoH funding is ring-fenced. That funding to key institutions ensures that expertise is maintained and continued in the UK.

As for the archive of research data, I agree with the noble Countess. The Government are committed to this research, as I have mentioned, and to surveillance, so our data and resources will remain accessible through peer-review publication systems for sharing material and through continuing liaison with the research community.