Foot and Mouth Disease: Lessons to be Learned

In 2001 Great Britain experienced its worst ever incidence of Foot and Mouth Disease. Apart from a minor outbreak in 1981 there had been no reported case since the last major epidemic of 1967. In the light of what proved to be an unprecedented experience the Government announced on 9 August 2001 the setting up of three independent inquiries.

This website presents the submissions to, meeting notes of and some official papers requested by the Inquiry into the lessons to be learned from the foot and mouth disease outbreak of 2001 and the way the Government should handle any future major animal disease outbreak.

The terms of reference for the Inquiry are as follows:

To make recommendations for the way in which the Government should handle any future major animal disease outbreak, in the light of the lessons identified from the handling of the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak in Great Britain.

The recommendations are being addressed to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and to the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales.

Contents

A – Submissions
B – Meeting Notes
C – Regional Visits
D – Government Publications
E – Media Transcripts

To link to the Inquiry Report click here

To return to the Inquiry Home page click here

DISCLAIMER NOTE

At the outset of its investigation it was publicly made known that the Inquiry would be as inclusive as possible. With this in mind the Inquiry indicated that it would welcome written submissions that would be fully considered and, subject to relevance and appropriateness, published as an Annex to the Report.

What follows are those submissions, along with notes of meetings held by the Inquiry in its London offices and elsewhere, copies of government documents, and media transcripts. The Inquiry has taken care to ensure that the content of submissions is reasonable but the views contained therein are those of the authors and not necessarily of the Inquiry. The fact that they are published hereafter does not indicate that they have been adopted by the Inquiry unless there is such an indication in the body of the Report itself.

The Inquiry has been able to publish all the relevant submissions it has received, except where permission to do so was withheld by a few individuals. Some of them have been slightly edited, either for legal reasons or to preserve the privacy of third parties. All were read in full and considered and played a part in assisting the Inquiry come to its final conclusions.

Many of the documents are in Adobe Acrobat .pdf format. To download the free Adobe Acrobat reader, click here.