Disease cost 'hard to control', says minister

Foot-and-mouth cost £3bn in public funds

Foot-and-mouth has cost taxpayers and private business £8 bn, it was revealed by the National Audit Office (NAO) last Friday.

Agriculture minister Elliot Morley spoke to BBC Radio 4 in the first ministerial interview addressing the highly critical report which highlights worries over fraud and overcharging by farmers and contractors.

He conceded to File On 4 that cost control was difficult in the early days of the epidemic.

"You are dealing with a national emergency - you need equipment on site fast and urgently. That is not a good environment for very tight price control."

But Mr Morley denied the government's contingency planning had been inadequate.

Elliot Morley: Lessons to be learned

"Of course having experienced this dreadful outbreak there are lessons for us to learn and we don't dispute that.

"We must build these into future contingency planning.

"But of course hindsight is a wonderful thing - no country in the world had ever experienced an outbreak of this scale or this type."

Earlier ban needed

In its report, however, the NAO said the government was warned two years before the foot-and-mouth crisis that its vets could be overwhelmed by a rapid spread of the disease.

The watchdog points to the warnings of the 1998-9 Drummond report about the state verterinary service.

Progress was made on many of those problems, it said, but action on other key concerns was delayed because other "high priority work" had to be done.

Some of the meetings I went to were very much as I'd imagined the mad hatter's tea party

Paul Kitching, Pirbright Animal Health Laboratory

One of the government's key advisors during the epidemic, Professor Mark Woolhouse of Edinburgh University, told File On 4 that an earlier ban on the movement of animals could have reduced the number of cases by half.

"In a sense the epidemic in the UK was not one epidemic.

"It was lots of little epidemics, some of which ran into each other.

"It was started by individual movements from one particular market or another."

File On 4 also spoke to Paul Kitching, from the Animal Health Laboratory in Pirbright which advises the government.

The crisis saw six million animals slaughtered

He said he witnessed a lack of understanding at meetings of the offcial scientific committee which had been set up to tackle the outbreak.

"Some of the meetings I went to were very much as I'd imagined the mad hatter's tea party, because they were totally out of touch with reality," he said.

The NAO said ways of ensuring proper cost controls in crisis conditions must now be set up.

Its report shows fraud allegations involving farmers and contractors are still being investigated.

Six million animals were slaughtered in the crisis, whcih the NAO said cost the government £3bn and tourism and the rural economy more than £5bn.

Elliot Morley is featured in File On 4's investigation of the foot-and-mouth crisis on Tueday 25 June at 2000 BST on BBC Radio 4, and live on the website.