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Documents held by the Department of Health on the safety of blood and blood products, 1970-1985

  • Last modified date:
    22 October 2008

In 2006 the Department commissioned a review of documents held between 1970-85 relating to blood safety, in order to identify those relating to non-A non-B hepatitis (NANBH). A review of the documents In 2006 the Department commissioned a review of documents held between 1970-85 relating to blood safety, in order to identify those relating to non-A non-B hepatitis (NANBH). A review of the documents relating to NANBH was conducted and was issued on 22 May 2007, together with relevant documents.

The review identified some further 4000 documents relating to the safety of blood and blood products in these years, held in unregistered files. These mainly refer to the UK’s drive to achieve self-sufficiency in blood products, to the reorganisation of the Blood Products Laboratory, and to measures taken to safeguard the blood supply and blood products from contamination by HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and hepatitis B.

In view of the public interest in these documents, these documents have been prepared in line with the Freedom of Information Act with the aim of releasing as many as possible. The documents were issued at broadly monthly intervals from June-October 2007.

A further set of documents on safety of blood was returned to the Department in 2006 by a firm of private solicitors that had acted in litigation proceedings in the 1990s. These documents were put into the public domain in hard copy in late 2006 and are now available below, with an inventory to the documents.

Where the Department locates other relevant documents we will continue to issue them in line with the Freedom of Information Act. These will be accessible below at Additional documents.

Select a section

Inventory of Volumes 1 -101

The first batch of documents, from DH files 1-20, was released on 15 June 2007.
Files 21-40 were released on 10 July 2007.
Files 41-60 were released on 1 August 2007.
Files 61-80 were released on 7 September 2007.
Files 81-101 were released on 26 October 2007.

Volumes 1 to 5: Oct 1969 to Dec 1976

Volumes 6 to 10: Jan 1977 to May 1979

Volumes 11 to 15: Apr 1979 to Dec 1980

Volumes 16 to 20: Jan to Oct 1981

Volumes 21 to 25: Oct 1981 to Oct 1982

Volumes 26 to 30: Oct 1982 to Sep 1983

Volumes 31 to 35: Sep 1983 to May 1984

Volumes 36 to 40: May to Dec 1984

Volumes 41 to 45: Dec 1984 to Feb 1985

Volumes 46 to 50: Mar to Jul 1985

Volumes 51 to 55: Jul to Oct 1985

Volumes 55 to 60: Oct 1985 to Jan 1986

Volumes 61 to 65: Jan to Jun 1986

Volumes 66 to 70: Nov 1979 to Jun 1986

Volumes 71 to 75: May 1975 to Jun 1984

Volumes 76 to 80: Dec 1974 to Jun 1986

Volumes 81 to 85: Nov 1976 to Jul 1986

Volumes 86 to 90: Sep 1979 to Jun 1986

Volumes 91 to 95: Nov 1973 to Dec 1984

Volumes 96 to 101: Feb 1969 to May 1990

Documents returned by solicitors, with inventory

Additional documents

Rediscovered documents on Lord Owen’s self-sufficiency initiative 1974-75

22 October 2008

As set out on these web pages, the Department is committed to releasing relevant official documents from 1970-1985 on the safety of blood and blood products. This includes official documents relating to the drive to achieve self-sufficiency in certain blood products in the NHS. The Department has previously published a report and documents on this initiative at

The Department has recently found 10 previously unreleased documents on the self-sufficiency initiative dating from 1974-75. These were located in an unregistered file compiled in the late 1980s. In keeping with our commitment to put all relevant documents in the public domain, they have been released to Lord Owen (Minister of Health at the time) and Lord Archer (for his private inquiry) and are now being placed on the DH website.

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