Farm disease errors could cost UK £600m

Britain's hopes of obtaining a £600m rebate from the European Union for the foot and mouth outbreak could be thwarted by a watchdog's damning report.

The report condemns the Government for allowing costs to get out of control.

The National Audit Office last week reported that the full cost of the outbreak was £8bn and still rising.

As the crisis unfolded, costs spiralled out of control, and one haulage firm was paid £38m. Fifty nine farmers received compensation payments of more than £1m.

One farmer received £4m compensation and another was paid £50,000 for a Swaledale ram that was culled. Other pay-outs included £50,000 for a stag, £48,000 for a Limousin bull and £20,000 for a pure-bred seven-year-old wild boar.

The NAO report – which is to be followed by an investigation by MPs on the Public Accounts Committee – could be used as evidence by the EU to stop further payments, said the Tory MEP Robert Sturdy.

Mr Sturdy and a committee of MEPs investigating the outbreak were in Britain last week with EU officials. "The commission officials are bound to report back. I would withhold the money until an audit," Mr Sturdy said.

The commission, which has already accepted half of the claim, could resist further payments until ministers satisfy the EU officials that the money was justified.

The NAO described how civil servants paid over-generous fees in the panic as the epidemic spread. It added: "Because of the shortages, the department may have paid significantly more [than necessary] for the materials required to eradicate the disease."

EU officials last week also heard evidence that livestock was culled unnecessarily. The MEPs visited one Welsh hill farm where the entire flock was destroyed, and compensation was paid, even though tests later proved to be negative. Mr Sturdy said: "It was also human tragedy. The farmer told us, 'They have taken away my dreams'."

* Investigations by the Department for Environment, Agriculture and Rural Affairs will continue this week after tests on a slaughtered pig with suspected foot and mouth disease proved negative. The animal, discovered at an abattoir in Congerstone, Leicestershire, was killed this weekend amid fears it was infected with the disease thought to have been wiped out nine months ago.