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When Dr Acheson became Chief Medical Officer, he decided the implications of HIV/AIDS were serious and that he should seek expert advice as soon as possible.

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Matters escalated in the year between Dr Acheson's appointment as Chief Medical Officer and Lord Glenarthur's query as to whether all blood was being screened for AIDS.

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Lord Glenarthur's query as to when the UK would be able to screen all blood for AIDS came after he had received no further briefing on the issue since an initial note on 31 August.

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Kenneth Clarke, as Minister of State for Health, did not think spending £2 million on AIDS screening would be cost effective and that the money would be better spent elsewhere.

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Lord Clarke confirmed in his oral evidence that his view in November 1984 was that spending of £2 million on blood tests for HTLV-3 was not cost effective. Though he recognised that with hindsight it was "a tragically - an incorrect opinion", he explained "that was when we got just a handful of AIDS cases".

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Scottish Home and Health Department representatives observed a meeting organised by the Department of Health and Social Security to discuss AIDS and the transfusion services.

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Dr Cash wrote to Dr Bell to express his dismay at the Department of Health and Social Security and the National Blood Transfusion Service regarding HIV screening.

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The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service were preparing to pursue their own evaluation unilaterally in the absence of a uniform UK approach.

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Dr Tedder and Dr Weiss repeatedly emphasised their concern about antibody positive samples as potentially infective.

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Dr Brian McClelland stated in regards to his overview of screening tests: "I can get no clear picture of when or how a serviceable assay will be provided."

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The regional transfusion directors described the meeting of the Advisory Committee on the National Blood Transfusion Service Working Group on AIDS as "unproductive", there was "no new leaflet, no finance and no positive move towards full donor screening."

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The Blood Products Laboratory had been discounted as serious contenders for the task of an RIA test.

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There was an agreement in a Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service directors meeting "to test all donors once an antibody test was available."

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In his evidence, Dr Brian McClelland explained that he approached Wellcome because they were the only UK-based manufacturer and he was not optimistic about getting a positive response from US suppliers.

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The Blood Products Laboratory did not have expertise in propagating retroviruses and Professor Weiss believed they would need to seek collaboration to produce a mass-use anti-HTLV-3 RIA.

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Professor Weiss said he had been "barely involved" in negotiating with companies regarding funding. DHSS negotiated on his behalf.

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Professor Weiss wrote in his statement that "we did not begin to develop an ELISA. Wellcome Diagnostics Ltd proposed to substitute ELISA for RIA in a screening test based on the competition format HIV antibody test that we had developed as a research tool, and Dr Tedder and I readily agreed."

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An article in The Guardian reported that a blood donor had passed the AIDS virus to three people - a mother, a baby, a 78-year-old man in the Brighton area.

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In a memo, Mr Williams of the Department of Health and Social Security drew attention to three incidents of UK blood being given by donors found positive by the screening test for HTLV III. He also added: "These incidents reinforce the current policy of the Department....(ii) developing a screening test and carrying out pilot studies of the test (in North London Transfusion Centre shortly)".

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Wellcome sub-contracted Porton Down to produce the antigen. This could be used by the BPL to make screening tests for RTCs.

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