Farming crisis is criticised in report

THE Government yesterday slammed a new report on the British foot-and-mouth outbreak for containing “serious errors of fact” about the way the crisis was handled.

A year-long European Parliament inquiry accused the Government of traumatising farmers and breaking animal welfare laws during the 2001 outbreak.

Bureaucratic delays and red tape may have actually doubled the number of cases, it said, and a ban on the movement of all susceptible animals should have been introduced immediately.