Farmers leaders hit out at Defra

DEFRA officials have rejected claims that the department should bear responsibility for last year's foot-and-mouth outbreaks.

They accept that Defra was the regulator of the animal health laboratories at Pirbright, where the virus escaped to devastate the farming industry, but the officials said responsibility for biosecurity lay with managers of the labs.

Livestock on eight farms in Surrey were infected with foot-and-mouth last August and September when a live FMD virus being used to develop a vaccine at Pirbright leaked from faulty pipework.

MPs on the House of Commons innovation, science, university and skills sub-committee were told last week that Defra's role as regulator did not extend to managing risk. Dr Nick Coulson, head of international animal health at Defra, said, "We accept that the regulatory system can be improved, but we don't accept the regulatory system was responsible for the release from Pirbright."

He told the committee that biosecurity at Pirbright was the responsibility of the site's managers, and Defra was not to blame for the outcome of the series of events that led to the outbreak.

And, while Defra was aware of regulatory issues that it was working to address, it was "obviously" not aware that the situation would lead where it did. He said laboratory managers would be expected to implement the required standards.

The denial came less than a week after Dr Iain Anderson's independent report into the FMD outbreak pointed the finger at a number of organisations, including Defra and managers at the Institute of Animal Health, which shared the site at Pirbright with private company Merial.

His report described the laboratory as a "shabby and dilapidated" place where regulation and risk management were poor. But Ruth Lysons, deputy director of the food and farming group at Defra, said the primary responsibility for managing risks lies with those who do the work and generate those risks. She said, "As regulators, Defra's responsibilities don't extend to taking responsibility for those risks."

The officials said they had accepted the findings of a review by Professor Bill Callaghan which raised concerns there was a conflict of interest for Defra as both regulator and customer.

As a result, regulatory control of such sites was being transferred to the Health and Safety Executive, which is looking at biosecurity in all UK research laboratories.