Sunday Telegraph
Foot & Mouth Licences Issued
Like Blank Cheques
By Daniel Foggo
2001.08.19

T
HE Government is facing fresh embarrassment over the foot and mouth crisis after The Telegraph found that officials controlling vehicle movements in infected areas have flouted regulations designed to contain the disease.

Documents handed to this newspaper show that officials have signed and validated Government licences permitting the loading and movement of vehicles in foot and mouth hotspots, even though crucial details of the journeys have not been filled in.

Permits with all the most important sections left blank were signed and issued to haulage contractors by officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. The discovery has alarmed Government critics, who fear that the slack practices displayed by Government officials could have contributed to the spread of the disease.

Maff introduced a system of licensing vehicle movements soon after the beginning of the outbreak six months ago. The purpose is to control strictly all vehicle movements and licences are supposed to be made out to specific individuals to allow them to work in an infected area, usually for a limited time.

They should stipulate the name of the driver and his company, the vehicle registration number, his point of departure and destination and how long the licence lasts. Separate authorisation slips are given to drivers to permit loading in infected areas.

The disclosure that the licences have been incorrectly issued throws fresh doubt on the Government's handling of the epidemic and will fuel calls for a public inquiry. Despite the highlighting of repeated mistakes by Maff, the Government is refusing to initiate a full and open investigation.

The documents obtained by The Telegraph, consisting of a movement licence and two loading authorisations, were found by a member of the public on June 7 at a roadside near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, which has been badly affected by foot and mouth.

The movement licence relates to a cargo of coal which was taken from Redcar on Teesside to Cumbria on March 27. The coal was to be used to burn carcasses. It names the driver of the Volvo truck as Doug Brown but the section detailing the intended destination is blank, as is the space for the expiry date of the licence. It has been signed by D McCartan, a Maff official. The loading licences have the date and vehicle registration number omitted, although both bear the signatures of issuing officials.

Mr Brown's employer, John Toulson, who runs a haulage firm in County Durham, confirmed that the document was genuine and speculated that it was lost when it was "blown out" of the lorry. He said he believed that uncompleted dockets were commonly supplied by ministry officials.

Dr Richard North, a specialist in epidemiology, said the issuing of blank forms was widespread: "The implications of contractors not turning up or being delayed are so great that Defra just allows them to run the show."

A spokesman for Defra, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which has replaced Maff, said: "This was an isolated incident of simple human error. It happened at the height of the outbreak when there was a vast amount of paperwork being issued."
THE END

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