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An email from Christine Dora to Mairi Gibson and others indicated that Officials in Scotland were keen on an appeal against the court judgment in "A and Others v National Blood Authority".

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Dr Aileen Keel regarded the Department of Health's decision not to appeal in "A and Others v National Blood Authority" as "lamentable".

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In his letter to Susan Deacon MSP, Minister for Health and Community Care, Philip Hunt, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health in the House of Lords, noted the decision of the ministers not to appeal in "A and Others v National Blood Authority", although with some reluctance.

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John Hutton told the Parliament that "as soon as technology became available to render blood products safe, it was introduced."

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Carol Grayson wrote to Baroness Andrews pointing out "the whole-blood hepatitis C cases that were won where the judge stated that testing/screening of blood donors for hepatitis C should have been introduced prior to 1991, and that the country should have acted as other European countries did and adopted testing earlier, erring on the side of caution even if there were some false positive test results".

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Richard Gutowski, in his statement to the Inquiry, recognised that the lines to take drafted for the Government relating to donor screening for Hepatitis C could have better reflected the findings of the Court in "A & others [2001] EWHC QB 446".

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A brief by Scottish Executive officials stated, in relation to the introduction of Hepatitis C screening in 1991, that this development was introduced as early as it reasonably could be in the light of the scientific knowledge and technical capabilities at that time.

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An update for the Secretary of State dated 29 March 2005 emphasised that donor screening for Hepatitis C was introduced in the UK in 1991 and the development of this test marked a major advance in microbiological technology, which could not have been implemented before this time.

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The Secretary of State for Health, Lord John Reid, wrote to Andy Kerr, repeating the line regarding introduction of the donor screening for Hepatitis C in the UK in 1991 in the context of the Government's position that a public inquiry was not justified.

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In his written statement to the Inquiry Lord Reid noted that the wording of his letter to Andrew Kerr was based on the briefing received by officials and agreed that the line was 'simply inaccurate'.

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In her letter to Nick Harvey MP, Caroline Flint, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health, repeated the line that Hepatitis C Screening could not have been introduced sooner and that a public inquiry was not justified.

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Responding to Carol Grayson, the Department of Health's Customer Service Directorate asserted that donor screening for Hepatitis C "could not have been implemented" before 1991.

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Lord Warner, speaking in the House of Lords, claimed that "the infection of people with hepatitis C was inadvertent. Nothing could have been done at the time with the technology available to assess the blood for that level of infection."

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Caroline Flint, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health, repeated in a letter to the Haemophilia Society that "Donor screening for hepatitis C was introduced in the UK in 1991 and the development of this test marked a major advance in microbiological technology, which could not have been implemented before this time."

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The press release, related to the the report on self-sufficiency in blood products in England and Wales, stated that "The review based on the available evidence, concludes that clinicians acted in the best interest of their patients in the light of the evidence available at the time. Donor screening for hepatitis C was introduced in the UK in 1991 and the development of this test marked a major advance in technology, which could not have been implemented before this time."

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A document prepared as part of a briefing for a parliamentary question in the House of Lords repeated the line that donor screening for Hepatitis C could not have been implemented sooner and that a public inquiry was not justified.

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The Department of Health, in response to a "Wales on Sunday" story on renewed calls for a public inquiry, reiterated their position that donor screening for Hepatitis C could not have been implemented sooner.

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In her letter to Michael Connarty MP, Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Health, repeated the line that donor screening for Hepatitis C could not have been implemented sooner in response to a request for a public inquiry.

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A Department of Health communications official approved the following line to take: "We have great sympathy for those infected with Hepatitis C and HIV and have considered the call for a public inquiry very carefully. However, the Government of the day acted in good faith, relying on the technology available at that time and therefore we do not feel a public inquiry would provide any real benefit to those affected."

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In a letter to the Manor House Group, Caroline Flint again explained the rejection of a public inquiry by reference to the introduction of donor screening for Hepatitis C in 1991 "which could not have been implemented before this time".

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