(2) what estimate she has made of the annual cost of testing blood donors for vCJD.
There are no current suitable tests for testing blood donation for variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (vCJD), and therefore no current plans to test blood donors. However we are aware of a number of companies developing vCJD blood tests and, if such tests become available and after consulting with the appropriate advisory bodies, we will consider their utility in testing blood donations with the National Blood Service.
There are no reliable current estimates of the cost of testing blood donations for vCJD, which could only be accurately calculated once a suitable test for testing donations is available, and the cost of such a test is known.