§ The Countess of Marasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they circulated the foot and mouth disease contingency plans for Great Britain to all the 90WA national and local disease control centres as soon as the plans were updated and published; and what checks were made to ensure they had been put into effect. [HL3031]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Whitty)The foot and mouth disease contingency plan was not circulated to animal health offices when it was updated in July 2000 because the changes were comparatively minor ones, for example, names and addresses, which had been circulated to staff already. The State Veterinary Service receives its instructions on foot and mouth procedures through detailed operational procedures. These are available online through the department's intranet facility and includes a section on contingency planning. In addition to this, each animal health office is required to maintain up-to-date, local contingency plans dealing with foot and mouth disease and other notifiable diseases (e.g. classical swine fever, rabies etc). These plans are reviewed on a regular basis.