HL Deb 10 March 1997 vol 579 cc5-6WA
The Countess of Mar

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will publish in the Official Report the text of the letter sent to the Countess of Mar by Earl Howe on 6 March about the cause of death of animals during the Gulf War.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Earl Howe)

The text of the letter is given below.

"When we met today I promised to write to you setting out the explanation for the mistakes made in answering two of the Parliamentary Questions you asked last June and July.

"Your questions essentially related to the cause of death of large numbers of camels, sheep and goats which you said had been found during and after the Gulf War, and whether they had died as a result of chemical weapons exposure. These questions were passed to the Defence Nuclear Biological and Chemical (NBC) Defence Centre at Winterbourne Gunner for advice. The staff could not track down anyone with any knowledge of the events you described and eventually sought advice from a British Army veterinary officer who had served in the Gulf.

"This officer had been employed principally on non-veterinary duties but had been asked by the Kuwaitis to attend to sick animals when he reached Kuwait at the end of the war. In a telephone conversation with the Defence NBC Centre, he gave an account of the condition of animals he treated in Kuwait, including some dairy cattle suffering from the effects of starvation which appeared to have developed mouth ulcerations as a result of licking car batteries abandoned within their enclosure. He contacted the Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine in Edinburgh to check whether he might be overlooking a tropical disease, and he also sent them nasal swabs from the cattle.

"He was given advice and information by the Edinburgh Centre but he never received any acknowledgement of receipt, or the results of any analysis in respect of the samples. In his experience it was normal practice in such circumstances for results to be returned only if a disease had been identified. Meanwhile, he gave conventional treatment to the cattle, to which they responded well.

"Unfortunately, an officer at the Defence NBC Centre misunderstood the above information and wrongly concluded that samples of the animals referred to in your questions were sent to Edinburgh for analysis. Based on this, an incorrect answer was drafted. An accurate answer would have said that we were unable in the time available to find any information on the events which you describe.

"I very much regret that this error occurred and am grateful to you for accepting that what happened was the result of a misunderstanding.

"The Ministry of Defence is currently reviewing its instructions on how Parliamentary Questions should be answered in the light of the wrong answers given on the use of organophosphate pesticides in the Gulf War. I have also asked the department to make a further search to see if we have any information relevant to your original questions. I shall write to you again when this work is complete.

"I am placing a copy of this letter in the Libraries of both Houses and intend that this letter be published in the Official Report at the earliest opportunity."