BSE Inquiry

[Guest guest]

Headline: I BELIEVED BSE EXPERTS', SAYS BOTTOMLEY

Wire Service: PA (PA News)

Date: Sun, Dec 13, 1998

Copyright 1998 PA News. Copying, storing, redistribution, retransmission,

publication, transfer or commerical exploitation of this information is

expressly forbidden.

By Eileen , Consumer Affairs Correspondent, PA News

Former Tory health minister Virginia Bottomley says that she believed

scientific experts who told her British beef was safe and that a " sporadic "

case of CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease) in a farmer was not linked to " mad

cow " disease.

Mrs Bottomley, who was at the Department of Health between 1989 and

1995, will today tell the London inquiry investigating the outbreak of BSE

(bovine spongiform encephalopathy) that, because of the unknown nature of

the disease at the time of the crisis, Government ministers relied on the

advice of scientists.

In written evidence for today's hearing she says: " At all times

ministers and officials saw BSE/CJD as a serious subject and it was treated

accordingly, with a professional and scientific approach. "

She says her key adviser at the Department was Sir Calman, the

Chief Medical Officer, who was expected to produce independent scientific

advice, irrespective of political considerations.

" My own view was that the Department would be failing if it did not base

its response to public health fears first and foremost on a sound

foundation of scientific advice. This was the guiding principle, not only

with BSE, but also in dealing with other public health concerns, " Mrs

Bottomley says.

" In the case of BSE the particularly difficult nature of the background

science made the provision of specialist advice all the more important. "

Referring to 1992 she says: " I was informed of the probable first case

of CJD in a farmer. I understood that the case of CJD in a farmer was

apotentially serious finding. I was informed that the provisional diagnosis

of CJD in a farmer had been confirmed through pathology. "

But Mrs Bottomley said that at that time she followed the advice of the

Government's Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee which had come to

the view that " all the indications suggested that it was a typical sporadic

case of CJD " , and not something linked to BSE.