Further to the answer to question S1W-10141 by Susan Deacon on 24 October 2000, whether there are any publicly funded studies, either on a …

Within the Scottish Executive Health Department, the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) has responsibility for encouraging and supporting research to improve both the health of the people in Scotland and the services provided by the NHS. CSO is aware of 166 UK studies on autism which are either ongoing or have been completed within the last seven years. 12 of these are Scottish studies. Whereas most do not appear to be specifically on the incidence of autism, incidence is likely to feature in a number of them. Details of the projects are available on the National Research Register (NRR), a copy of which is in the Parliament's Reference Centre.CSO is aware of a further two recently published studies which have recorded the level of incidence of autism in at least a part of the population during some period since 1980 during investigations to determine whether the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine could be causally associated with autism. A report of one study appeared in The Lancet, Volume 353, Number 9169, 12 June 1999, and a report of the other appeared in the British Medical Journal, Volume 322, 17 February 2001. Neither study found a causal association between the MMR vaccine and autism.The main agency through which the UK Government supports medical and clinical research is the Medical Research Council (MRC) which has committed £6.4 million to ongoing or recently completed autism research, £351,000 of which funds the major autism study to which you referred in question S1W-10141. Autism remains a strategic priority for the MRC, which continues to welcome research proposals in this area. CSO too would welcome innovative research proposals on autism.