On 28 January 2010, the UK General Medical Council (GMC)'s Fitness to Practise Panel ruled that the research (published in The Lancet in February 1998) which suggested that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine caused autism was conducted in a dishonest and irresponsible manner.  On 2 February 2010, The Lancet retracted the 12-year old paper by Dr Andrew Jeremy Wakefield and colleagues. 

In the retraction letter, the Editors of The lancet wrote "Following the judgment of the UK General Medical Council's Fitness to Practise Panel on Jan 28, 2010, it has become clear that several elements of the 1998 paper by Wakefield et al are incorrect, contrary to the findings of an earlier investigation.

In particular, the claims in the original paper that children were "consecutively referred" and that investigations were "approved" by the local ethics committee have been proven to be false..."

References:

1. Report of the GMC's Fitness to Practise Panel hearing, 28 January 2010

2. The Lancet, Volume 375, Issue 9713, Page 445