News story

24th June 2002

Steve Webb Tells Euro MPs About "Lessons" of Foot and Mouth Crisis

Northavon MP Steve Webb has told a group of visiting MEPs that farmers remain fearful that there could be a repeat of the Foot & Mouth outbreak unless urgent action is taken to stop the import of infected meat. The MP was giving evidence on Friday evening (21st June) at a public meeting in Alveston organised by the European Union’s investigation into the Foot & Mouth outbreak. The MP told the delegation that he had spent a lot of time during the crisis talking to farmers, local businesses and members of the public, and a recurrent theme was the lack of reliable information.

People wanted to know what was going on, the MP told the meeting, but very often the Ministry of Agriculture seemed to be the last people who knew. Steve Webb also told the MEPs that the effects of Foot & Mouth had often been felt most strongly by farmers who did not have Foot & Mouth on their own farm but who were prevented from moving their animals because of Foot & Mouth in the wider area. These farmers still had to pay to feed their animals but could not move them to market. If the animals went for slaughter, the prices offered during the crisis were often very low, yet these farmers were often not eligible for any compensation at all.

There were also knock-on effects on a wide range of rural businesses who had missed out on compensation because South Gloucestershire was not regarded as being sufficiently “rural”.

Speaking after the meeting, Steve Webb said:

“I very much welcome the visit by this group of Euro MPs to South Gloucestershire in order to hear from local people how the Foot & Mouth crisis affected them. I hope that their report will prompt our own Government to learn lessons from the crisis. In particular, I hope that the Government will do more to tackle the problem of imports of infected meat which leave Britain open to another outbreak”.

** ENDS **