Ministers 'fiddled' foot-and-mouth figures

The European Parliament accused the Government yesterday of fiddling the figures on the number of animals slaughtered during the foot-and-mouth epidemic.

In a damning report, it said that while official figures claimed 6.5 million animals were slaughtered, the actual number was about 10 million.

The attack on the Government's handling of foot-and-mouth said ministers had contravened EU laws and increased the number of animals infected by the disease by failing to ban animal movements early enough.

The strongly worded attack criticised the Government for inadequate planning when the outbreak began. It recommended hotels and businesses that lost money should receive compensation and questioned whether the policy of culling animals in infected areas helped to curb the epidemic.

MEPs on the committee that held the inquiry said it was a "devastating account of the UK government's handling of the outbreak". The Conservative MEP Robert Sturdy said: "Almost every line of this report should shame the Government. It is no surprise that the Government has done everything in its powers to hide this evidence from the British people.

"There is clear evidence the Government has been falsifying figures in an attempt to play down the true impact of the outbreak. Government figures suggest six million animals were slaughtered. Our findings point to a figure of 10 million."

The report said many new-born lambs and calves were not counted in the official figures because they were not included for compensation. It suggested that if ministers had agreed to vaccinate animals on neighbouring farms they could have reduced the culling total.

From now on, emergency vaccination will form part of the control strategy from the start providing experts say that will be the most effective course.

"The large number of animals culled caused enormous problems in the disposal of animal carcasses, which could perhaps, to some extent, have been reduced by means of vaccination on neighbouring farms," the report said.

The MEPs accused the Government of violating animal welfare legislation during the cull and of "bureaucratic and formalistic procedures".