Government told to listen to experts

Cattle first showed signs of BSE in the mid-1980s

UK scientists have called for changes to the government's handling of scientific advice following the report into the BSE crisis.

The inquiry highlighted problems with Britain's policy on dealing with advice from expert committees and criticised the lack of co-ordination of research policy between government departments.

Dr Peter Cotgreave, of the Save British Science Society, said: "The inquiry has stated quite clearly that scientific experts have not been given the independence to state their views.

"There will have to be changes to the way scientific advice is dealt with in government. The inquiry says government experts should be able to publish their advice.

"If that had happened over BSE, it would have prevented the outrageous situation in which political interference from officials at the Ministry of Agriculture allowed them to overrule the Chief Medical Officer on what he was permitted to tell government ministers.

Research cuts

Dr Cotgreave also noted the inquiry's criticism of the lack of co-ordination between different government departments over research policy.

"The left hand neither knows nor cares what the right hand is doing," he said.

Scientists were among 333 witnesses interviewed for the inquiry

"Over the last decade and a half, we've seen the bizarre spectacle of the Ministry of Agriculture cutting its research budget in the face of a whole host of problems, of which BSE is just one.

"This culture of treating scientists as second class citizens, and of failing to listen to their advice, must stop."

The BSE inquiry took two and a half years and cost £27m. The 16-volume report included a long section on the lessons to be learned from the affair.

'Culture of secrecy'

The report said the next time a disease was identified which might potentially pass from animals to humans, a comprehensive review of all the possible infection pathways should be undertaken.

This would include all relevant government departments and draw on whatever outside help might be necessary.

In the case of all health scares, a "policy of openness" was the correct approach, the report concluded. Scientists have spoken of a "culture of secrecy" over BSE where experts couldn't pursue their research into the disease.

Ian McGill, a former research scientist at the Ministry of Agriculture, told the BBC: "There seemed to be a culture that there were certain questions that just weren't allowed to be asked and you weren't allowed to pursue those lines of research.

"The scientists that I was working with were trying to get the research done and get the work published, but they were fighting a culture of not doing it."

'Research was prevented'

Dr Stephen Dealler, a medical microbiologist who presented evidence to the BSE inquiry, said scientists such as himself who tried to sound the alert were "just not listened to".

Dr Dealler told the BBC: "What happened was a lot of research was prevented, a lot of publications were prevented, and a lot of research took place actually inside the Ministry of Agriculture.

"It was very, very difficult for this data to get out to people outside.

It has emerged during the inquiry that in the early days of BSE, vital research was delayed because of rivalries between the Ministry of Agriculture's veterinary laboratory and another government unit in Edinburgh specialising in brain diseases.

And when expert scientific committees were finally set up to advise on what action to take, officials and ministers left the public with confused messages about their conclusions.