Day 038 - 19 Oct 94 - Page 21


     
     1        secret.  Typically some small fraction of the available
     2        data was published, but by no means all of it.
     3
     4        There was a modification in policy and the arrangement
     5        became that some fraction of new data after -- I am not
     6        absolutely certain of the date, whether it was 1987 or 1988
     7         -- but new data submitted for new evaluations after that
     8        date that was not otherwise published was to be deposited
     9        in the British library in Weatherby.  That scheme started
    10        in the late 80s.  There is partial access to that data.  It
    11        is not freedom of information.
    12
    13        One of the first reports of the Committee on Toxicity,
    14        supposedly covered by these new arrangements of access to
    15        information, was a report on food colours.  In particular,
    16        I tried to obtain a document on the artificial colouring
    17        amaranth E123, subject to some discussion here.
    18        I submitted a form requesting a document from the British
    19        library.  I was told that that was not sufficient.  I had
    20        to submit seven forms.  I submitted the seven forms.  They
    21        came back and they said:  "No, you have to submit 35 forms
    22        and pay £75".  I then went back to the Ministry of
    23        Agriculture, Fisheries & Foods and they intervened.
    24        Eventually the requirements were reduced to one form, but
    25        it still cost over £70 to obtain that data.
    26
    27        So, I think it is not quite freedom of information.  But
    28        I think I should explain that, while the British Government
    29        now have made these partial arrangements for public access
    30        to some of the toxicological data, similar arrangements do
    31        not apply for the Scientific Committee for Food.  They
    32        continue to accept and evaluate unpublished data, and they
    33        will not make any of it publicly accessible.  The position
    34        at world level, WHO, FAO, Joint Expert Committee, remains
    35        the same, namely, they review large amounts of unpublished
    36        data and it remains publicly inaccessible.
    37
    38        One of the few countries in the world where we can get
    39        access to toxicological data is the USA under the
    40        provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.  I make
    41        extensive use of the US Freedom of Information Act.  Much
    42        of the evidence that I have obtained upon which I base my
    43        evaluation of these compounds is data which I have obtained
    44        from the files of the Food and Drug Administration that the
    45        British Government have refused to give us.
    46
    47   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Are you going on from secrecy to something
    48        else?
    49
    50   MS. STEEL:   There was one point I wanted to clarify on that. 
    51 
    52   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It is just that I had not looked at the 
    53        clock; we will break off for our five minutes now.
    54
    55                            (Short Adjournment)
    56
    57   MS. STEEL:   I just wanted to clarify something on the secrecy,
    58        because you mentioned that the regulations changed in 1987
    59        or 1988, but the compounds that you were looking at which
    60        were covered by European legislation, you said that 45 of

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