A spokesman conceded that new batches produced at the Centre for Applied
A spokesman conceded that new batches produced at the Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research (CAMR), run by the Department of Health, had failed tests by the regulatory authorities."We looked at that, and decided that the refurbishment programme was required," he said. There are no doubts over the safety of either the present vaccine, or of the stock that will replace it."It has also prompted anger from Gulf War veterans, who fear that a further outbreak of sickness among service personnel will follow the most recent use of the old vaccine.The Ministry of Defence (MoD) says the new vaccine will not be available until the middle of next year. Supplies of a new vaccine have failed a number of safety tests, and its production facility, near the Porton Down germ warfare research base in Wiltshire, has had to be completely refurbished. The disclosure comes a full year after George Robertson, who was Secretary of State for Defence, pledged that replacement vaccine would become available "quickly". At the time he said: "I wish to emphasise personally that the problem is one of supply. BRITISH TROOPS serving in the Gulf region are dependent for protection against biological weapons on an anthrax vaccine that has passed its "shelf-life" date three times, and which has been cited as a possible cause of Gulf War syndrome.
"But if he has breached the regulations, he will accept any sanctions." The spokesman could not confirm a suggestion that Mr Baldry planned to absent himself from the Commons while the Commissioner examined the case.. "He didn't think that it was anything that needed technically to be registered," said the spokesman. "This was a personal loan without interest," Mr Baldry told The Sunday Telegraph."What I said [to the lender] at the time was that, even if the Conservatives had won [the May 1997 election], I was almost certainly not going to be a minister," said Mr Baldry, who is on the pro-European wing of the party."I told him I would repay the loan out of the small amount of money ministers get in the way of redundancy. I didn't mention it to my department and I didn't think to register it. I didn't believe it had to be registered."A Tory party spokesman confirmed that the MP had referred the matter to the Parliamentary Commissioner. Mr Baldry, 49, said he did not believe that it was necessary to register the loan.
The Banbury MP, Tony Baldry, a former agriculture minister, is said to have received the money from a prominent City solicitor early in 1997, shortly before the Tories' general election defeat. It was not declared in the Commons Register of Members' Interests, nor referred to civil servants. A FORMER Conservative minister has invited the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards to examine a pounds 5,000 loan that he received from a business associate. He said: "Cinemas are part of our cultural history and as important as all other building types. They are part of the infrastructure of life, not just their architecture but also their decoration.". Richard Gray, the chairman of the Cinema Theatre Association first suggested the picture house project to English Heritage.
There are already 120 listed cinemas, 10 of which will be upgraded to Grade II* status tomorrow. The conference will be used to launch a scheme to find the public's favourite old cinemas.Speakers will also discuss ways to help save old picture houses from the rise of the multiplex and highlight the plight of these overlooked buildings. The building is now boarded up and is affected by water damage.It is to combat problems like these that the film producer David Puttnam will address an English Heritage conference on the future of England's historic cinemas on Wednesday, at Notting Hill's Gate cinema. But faced with competition from a nearby multiplex it had to close. According to SBH, no cinema is "more evocative of a bygone era". "We look at practical ways of saving endangered buildings whatever their type."The State cinema in Grays, near Thurrock, Essex, typifies the problems faced by older cinemas. It was during the period that films replaced music hall as the most popular form of entertainment and before television took its place in the nation's affections.Marcus Binney, president of Save Britain's Heritage (SBH) which has been highlighting the plight of buildings, including cinemas, since 1975, said.