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Scottish Executive Response to: Lessons to be Learned; Royal Society; and Royal Society of Edinburgh Inquiries into Foot and Mouth Disease
CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION
1. The 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak was unprecedented in its scale and impact on the farming industry as well as other sectors of the rural economy, including tourism. The outbreak affected all four countries within the United Kingdom. 187 of the 2,030 confirmed cases in the UK were in Scotland. The impact of FMD - both economic and social - placed a significant burden on those affected in both agriculture and the wider rural economy. A detailed study is currently in progress to assess the impact of FMD on the Scottish economy but provisional assessments made in 2001 suggested that this FMD outbreak cost the farming sector around 60m and the tourism sector around 200m. Concerted and co-ordinated effort by the Scottish Executive, Local Authorities and other agencies, and Scotland's farming and meat and livestock industry made it possible to control, then completely eradicate the disease within 3 months. The last case was on 30 May 2001. The outbreak was confined to Dumfries and Galloway and a small part of the Scottish Borders. Rigorous containment of the disease safeguarded much of Scotland's valuable livestock sector and, in due course, this helped the Executive's case for the early recommencement of meat exports.
2. Recognising the level of national as well as international interest in this major incident, its handling, its wider consequences and its cost, the UK Government with the agreement of the Scottish Executive decided to commission two Inquiries covering Great Britain as follows:
Dr Iain Anderson chaired an Inquiry into the Lessons to be Learned with the remit of reviewing the handling of the FMD outbreak in Great Britain to draw out lessons and make recommendations for the future.
Sir Brian Follett chaired the Royal Society Inquiry into Infectious Diseases in Livestock, looking specifically into questions related to transmission, prevention and control of epidemic outbreaks of infectious diseases in livestock in Great Britain.
3. In addition to these two Inquiries, the Royal Society of Edinburgh conducted its own Inquiry. This Inquiry is specific to Scotland and concentrates on the outbreak here. Annex C contains the terms of reference of each Inquiry.
4. An investigation was also carried out by the National Audit Office at a GB level. This Response does not deal with specific recommendations raised by the NAO but the principles advanced by the NAO are recognised in the Executive's overall approach.
5. It should also be noted that the Scottish Executive initiated its own internal Management Review in summer 2001 which reported by the end of that year. That Review identified a number of specific lessons which the Executive needed to learn and address about its internal processes. The conclusions of the Report were made available to the FMD Inquiries to inform their analysis, as well as to the Scottish Parliament's Rural Development Committee. Again the specific recommendations from that internal Review are not dealt with here but the thrust of what is recommended, which has been accepted by the Executive, is reflected in this Response.
6. In January 2002 the European Parliament established a Temporary Committee to investigate the causes of the 2001 FMD outbreak and to review EU policy in this area. Scottish Ministers have contributed to the work of this Committee and its report is expected in December 2002.
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