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In his oral evidence, Lord Clarke said that he would reject any conclusion that there was a delay in the introduction of HIV screening.

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Lord Clarke in his oral evidence criticised the Inquiry as engaging in "historical research... with the elderly survivors, the ones that hadn't died so far, of those who are in the Department at the time, and in meticulous detail, which it's inconceivable that any witness could possibly remember."

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In response to a question about the line taken that there was no conclusive proof, Lord Clark in his evidence said, "We're not going to go long all day like this, are we? It doesn't -- I mean, doesn't this Inquiry wish to reach a conclusion? I don't know how many years you've been going. Extraordinary."

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Lord Clarke in his oral evidence to this inquiry agreed that emerging potential threats to public health need to be dealt with speedily.

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In his oral evidence Lord Clark said the former CMO Sir Henry Yellowlees was one of the officials, in all his many, many departments, one of the very senior and responsible officials who, shall he say, failed to impress him.

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Lord Clarke in his oral evidence said that despite his strong feelings about whether anything was done wrong, he believes what happened was probably the worst tragedy that's ever occurred, and that all the people he worked with were acutely aware of the human suffering that was being caused whilst HIV and other infections were spreading among haemophiliacs and they were desperately trying to find what was happening, and how to stop it.

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In his evidence to this Inquiry Lord Fowler accepted that the Department and he as Secretary of State, had a responsibility to ensure, as much as possible, that treatment given through the National Health Service was safe.

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Lord Fowler in his oral evidence to this Inquiry said the department's role was to keep up the review of the whole area and to take any action which was necessary to try to preserve public health.

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Lord Fowler in his oral evidence said it was one of the characteristics of the conservative government at the time to have a rapid turnover in ministers.

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In his oral evidence Lord Fowler said he only had occasional one on one meetings with Sir Henry Yellowlees, and he was a distant character who was a traditional CMO and not really in the public health area.

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Lord Fowler in his oral evidence to the Inquiry said in the absence of earlier documents, the first time he could see AIDS brought to his attention was in May 1983 and more in 1985.

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In his oral evidence to the Inquiry Lord Fowler said the Blood Transfusion Research Committee's paper on the problems posed by AIDS to the Blood Transfusion Service was a paper that should have been ringing alarm bells in the department.

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According to Lord Fowler's oral evidence, ministers could provide advice to the public and one such instance was the DHSS public campaign to advise parents to vaccinate their children against whooping cough, a campaign which they believed saved lives.

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Lord Fowler in his oral evidence to the Inquiry said the department should have spotted the need to reflect the balance of the background more precisely in the line that was taken as to no conclusive proof, which should have reflected the fact that the evidence also suggested that it was likely that AIDS could be transmitted by blood.

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Lord Fowler in his evidence to the Inquiry said that one of the most important qualities of a minister is that they must challenge what is being put in front of them.

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In his oral evidence to the Inquiry Lord Fowler said that in theory the responsibility for healthcare in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland rested with their respective secretaries of state but in reality the DHSS was so big that anything it did in terms of health tended to be followed in the other areas.

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Lord Fowler said in his oral evidence that though the Wales and Northern Ireland followed the DHSS Scotland remained "determinedly independent" on several things.

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According to Lord Fowler's oral evidence Dr Galbraith's letter should have been shared with ministers and that there was a strong case for at least sharing it with Lord Glenarthur as the minister for blood and blood products.

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Lord Fowler expected that Lord Glenarthur and the CMO would be fully briefed about the results of the meeting, but without being aware of it, a minister could not consider whether they agreed about the decision making or whether they needed to challenge it.

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Lord Fowler stated that it would not be good practice if the DHSS was largely taking its advice about haemophilia care from one clinician.

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