Stephen Dorrell explians why he did not know the ban was being flouted

Mr Dorrell said he had no idea that the ban preventing infected beef reaching the human food chain was not working, because government scientists had not told him.

"If they don't come back to the minister and say this is impossible or this can't be done in the practical slaughter house situation, the minister must assume the law of the land is being enforced," he told the BSE inquiry.

Stephen Dorrell says scientists led attempts to allay public fears

The former health secretary also admitted statements that he gave on the safety of beef were misleading and could have been clear.

Mr Dorrell admitted he should have made it clear that the use of the word "safe" did not equal no risk through eating beef.

"During the time leading up to March 1996, I think that that was what we were seeking to say, but it wasn't expressed with that degree of clarity," he said.

He repeated his assertion that he was not properly informed of the failure of measures intended to ensure beef was "safe".

He said: "The only basis which I felt free to say beef is safe is on the basis that these safeguards were in place and being enforced.

"Clearly if the safeguards were not being enforced we could not have felt that beef was in the normal meaning of the word safe."

He added: "These were people under a statutory obligation to perform a duty and under those circumstances I am not sure what more ministers can do."

Mr Dorrell also spoke of a series of high-level meetings between politicians and scientists at Downing Street, where even a cull of the UK's entire beef herd was considered.

Agriculture Minister Nick Brown said he could not comment on evidence before the BSE inquiry, as he would have to consider its conclusions.

But he agreed such statements strengthened the case for an independent body monitoring food safety.

"Of course I accept the case for a food standards agency," he told the BBC.

"There are a number of things that weren't in the Queen's speech. The government is a new government. We've been out of office for 18 years and there's a lot of things that we want to do.

"Frank Dobson and myself are looking at ways of taking the agency proposal forward, so that we can do as much as we can that doesn't require legislation."

In written evidence to the BSE inquiry on Monday, Mr Dorrell - who occupied the post of health secretary from July 1995 to May 1997 - says that attempts to allay public fears over BSE were led by scientists.

"Anxiety and disagreements" amongst Tory ministers

Papers released to the inquiry on Monday say that scientists were continually carrying out tests to discover the extent of the problem.

But they are also said to reveal that there was some anxiety amongst Tory ministers over the issue.

And there were disagreements between ministers in the days leading up to Mr Dorrell's announcement of a possible link between BSE and new variant CJD.

A lawyer acting for the families of CJD victims, said: "One issue that comes over very forcefully is that the first fear of the government was that there would be huge claims for compensation - and this was when the government was in the sixth year of its compensation scheme for farmers."