To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what progress has been made on moving the responsibility for the monitoring and subsequent investigation of human suspected adverse reactions to veterinary medicines from the Veterinary Medicines Directorate to an independent research institute or university department. [32850]

This recommendation of the Agriculture Committee was carefully reviewed by a Group convened by Professor D. H. Lawson, Chairman of the Medicines Commission. The Group concluded in November 1996 that it could not identify any independent body capable of taking over the Suspected Adverse Reactions Surveillance Scheme (SARSS). However the Group made a number of recommendations designed to improve public confidence in the objectivity of the Scheme's administration, including the reconstruction of the SARSS Appraisal Panel with an exclusively independent membership, all of which were accepted by the Government.