Hansard

Alasdair Morgan put a number of questions—I lost count at eight—but I will attempt to answer them in turn.

I was quoted as having said previously that we should pay attention to what was happening in the rest of the UK. Absolutely—I repeated that in my statement today, and ministers in other parts of the UK have said the same thing this week. We recognise that it is in the best interests of all parts of the UK for us to co-operate and have an agreed UK policy position on this issue. We have constantly striven for that and continue to have it.

As I said in last week's debate, we have remained in contact with colleagues across the UK on this matter because we recognise that there is considerable cross-border traffic in beef and beef products. A Scottish isolationist position, or any political posturing on this issue by us in Scotland, would be wholly inappropriate and detrimental to public health. There is no contradiction in the position that we have adopted—quite the opposite.

In a spirit of openness and in the interests of clarity, we are more than happy to make publicly available the current advice that Scottish ministers have received from Sir David Carter, the Scottish chief medical officer. That advice will be—if it is not already—available through the Scottish Parliament information centre and on the Scottish Parliament website for those who wish to examine it in detail. I encourage all members to do that. As we have said consistently, the action we take will be appropriate, based on medical advice.

There are a large number of technical and practical reasons for the Oxford data's not yet being available. It is unlikely to be available to us until November. That is simply a statement of fact. The Scottish CMO has stated that he wants to be in possession of that evidence before he issues further advice to us on this matter. That is the sensible thing to do.

In response to Mr Morgan's questions, we must return to the purpose, validity and sense of the ban. I repeat the information that I gave in my statement: more than 43 people have developed

variant CJD. I appeal to all members—of all parties—to cast their minds back to some of the pictures that we saw on our television screens when the BSE crisis first emerged and when the existence of variant CJD was identified. Remember the pain and the suffering of those infected by this terrible disease; remember the pain, suffering and loss of their relatives. That is why the ban is in place. That is why we are taking advice from the Scottish CMO and that is why we will continue to act on the basis of medical advice in the best health interest of the people of Scotland.