[11] The scope of the ACVSB concerned areas of significant policy for the whole of the United Kingdom and operated under the terms of reference: "To advise the Health Departments of the UK on measures to ensure the virological safety of blood, whilst maintaining adequate supplies of appropriate quality for both immediate use and for plasma processing.
[14] It came to light in 2004 that documentation that fell within the scope of NHS contaminated blood products had gone missing from within the Department of Health and was thought to have been destroyed in the early 1990s.
[31] It was claimed by the (then) Minister of State, Lord Warner, that the files in question had been identified by the Department of Health as minutes and background papers of the ACVSB spanning May 1989 to February 1992 and that they were "unfortunately destroyed" having not been properly archived.
[34] A court disclosure list from the Hepatitis C Litigation dated 9 May 2000 also confirms that ACVSB volumes 4-17 of file series "GEB1" were destroyed at various stages between July 1994 and March 1998.
[36][37] In 2001, the role of the ACVSB was referred to in the judgment of A and Others v National Blood Authority in that ministerial approval had been given on 21 January 1991, yet the second generation tests were not introduced in England and Wales until 1 September 1991.