United Kingdom-Sir Ian Anderson's recommendations on foot and mouth.

Sheep industry leaders have welcomed Defra’s acceptance of all Sir Ian Anderson’s detailed recommendations following his inquiry into the 2007 foot-and-mouth outbreak.

But the National Sheep Association’s officials say if there is to be improvement, Ministers must turn those words into actions.

Britain’s second outbreak of the disease started when the virus was allowed to leak from the Government’s research centre at Pirbright in Surrey.

Defra has consistently denied responsibility for the incident, which led to major movement restrictions being imposed, and no one has been prosecuted.

And even the Anderson report concentrates on the way in which the outbreak was handled as opposed to dealing with the reasons why it occurred.

NSA chief executive Peter Morris said: "Because of this remit, the review found positives as well as lessons to be learned as part of its conclusions.

"While the things that went well must not be overlooked, we believe they should not be used to detract from either the negatives or the reasons why the outbreak occurred in the first place.

"Even after all this time, the sheep-farming community still feels incredibly angry about what happened in 2007 and many sheep-farming businesses have never fully recovered from the financial and emotional turmoil that they were forced to endure.

"It was absolutely right that a full review was undertaken and that its recommendations were accepted by Government. This will not take away the anger and pain but at least it will show that we can reduce the implications of any future outbreaks." Mr Morris said the association was concerned to ensure the Government delivered on its promises to improve traceability systems and the way in which situations and communications are handled in the event of a future outbreak.

"What will not be acceptable is for Government to feel it has fulfilled its obligations to improve by simply passing on costs of improvement to industry and by moving itself further away from shouldering the responsibilities it has in a disease outbreak situation," he added.

"We believe that it is right for industry and Government to work together as closely as possible in such situations, but the conditions that surround any such working arrangements must be fair and equitable to both industry and Government."