MEDICS who will be on the frontline in a terrorist attack on the UK have been given a smallpox vaccine 21 years out of date.

Around 350 doctors and nurses were given injections to protect them if germ warfare is unleashed.

Hospital executives yesterday admitted the antidote vials sent out by the Government were stamped with a 1982 use-by date.

Health union chiefs voiced concern that old stock was being used to protect medics.

But authorities insisted the vaccine was still effective.

Health workers from across Britain volunteered to be vaccinated as part of the Department of Health's Regional Smallpox Response Network.

Staff at hospitals in Aberdeen, Dundee, Livingston and Glasgow are involved.

But the vaccines come from stocks held by the Government since 1979 when the disease - which kills 30 per cent of those infected - was eradicated.

Vials sent to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary were stamped with a 21-year-old expiry date.

A Scottish Executive spokesman said: "Since 1979, smallpox vaccine batches have been tested on a rolling basis for maintenance of potency which has resulted in shelf-life extensions being granted."

And a spokesman for the Department of Health said: "The national position is to use the old vaccine because of confidence in its potency."

But Jim Devine, Scottish organiser of health union Unison, said: "To discover that this vaccine has been lying collecting dust on a shelf for more than 20 years is concerning.

"Frontline staff deserve to know that their safety is not being risked."