MINISTERS have been accused of misleading Pendle MP Gordon Prentice over cutbacks in the special unit which discovered the latest link between mad cow disease and humans.

Mr Prentice took up the question of cutbacks in the CJD surveillance unit in Edinburgh in December.

Agriculture Minister Douglas Hogg promised him no cutbacks or cash restrictions were being made into research into CJD, the human form of mad cow disease.

But now the Labour backbencher has been told by Science Minister Ian Taylor that staff numbers were cut from 41 in 1993 to just 26 in 1995.

Although they have risen again to 33 this year with a promise from the government of further action to boost work at the unit, Mr Prentice is very unhappy.

He said: "The Minister told me there were no cuts in BSE research. That has been flatly contradicted by Mr Taylor who told me there was a dramatic reduction in scientists.

"This research centre works at the very leading edge of work on BSE and CJD. Mr Hogg told me there were no cuts in research yet the number of scientists employed on this ground-breaking work had dropped alarmingly.

"Douglas Hogg sought to reassure me there was nothing to worry about. Now we know the truth that cutbacks at the unit put the research at risk."

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