To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether there has been an investigation of purported ethical approval for blood tests funded by legal aid to detect the presence of the measles virus carried out on claimants and controls in research in connection with concluded MMR vaccine litigation. (321636)

[holding answer 11 March 2010]: We understand that the tests in question were carried out as part of now concluded litigation that followed claims that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine was linked to autism. It appears that the tests were organised by the legal teams involved and the Department played no part in these arrangements.