asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by Baroness Taylor of Bolton on 27 November (WA 108), whether the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency's decisions in the case of Gulf War veteran, the late Mr T E Walker, were in accordance with the evidence and the rules of the scheme; and whether they have any bearing on the case of Mr Mark McGreevy or that of any other Gulf War veteran. [HL902]
An incorrect decision was made in the case of the late Mr T E Walker and the Ministry of Defence made an apology to Mr Walker's family. This was followed by an apology from my noble friend Lord Drayson on 11 October 2007 (Official Report, col. 341).
The mistake made in Mr Walker's case has no bearing on the case of Mr Mark McGreevy or that of any other Gulf War veteran.
asked Her Majesty's Government:
How blood samples from Gulf War veterans are being banked so that, as new assay methods emerge for organic compounds, the samples can be tested; and whether samples are being banked from other veterans returning from other conflicts. [HL919]
A number of blood samples were collected from UK service personnel being prepared for deployment to the Gulf in 1990-91 at various stages of the anti-biological warfare agent vaccination programme; these are currently stored at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Porton Down. The samples are stored at -20C and in theory could be subjected to additional testing as new techniques emerge. However, these samples are now over 16 years old and inevitably will deteriorate with time.
The samples were analysed in 1991 with the aim of investigating the level of protection conferred by giving anthrax vaccine in combination with pertussis vaccine. The results of the study were set out in a paper “Operation GRANBY: The effect of co-administration of the pertussis vaccine on specific antibody titre development to the anthrax vaccine in man”, which was made available in October 1997 and is available in the Library of the House. The Ministry of Defence has no plans for additional banking of blood samples from veterans of the 1990-91 Gulf conflict, and has not collected samples from UK service personnel deployed to Iraq (Op TELIC) and Afghanistan (Op HERRICK).