§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what measures have been taken since the foot and mouth epidemic to ensure that if another outbreak were to occur it could be efficiently dealt with. [66647]
§ Mr. MorleyDEFRA has produced an interim contingency plan for foot and mouth disease in consultation with some key stakeholders and operational partners. The interim contingency plan builds on the existing plan (which is required by EC Directive 90/423) and codifies experiences and lessons learned from the recent outbreak. However, it does not seek to pre-judge the results of the official inquiries into the last outbreak. All plans will be comprehensively reviewed as a result of any recommendations made by the official inquiries.
A programme of testing through simulation exercises is planned for the future. Stakeholders at both national and local level will be invited to be involved in the programme.
A number of restrictions on animal movements remain in place as a means of helping protect against the rapid spread of any new incursion of disease, and measures have been taken to improve standards of biosecurity in livestock markets and shows. These arrangements also will be reviewed in the light of the recommendations of the official inquiries.
§ Mr. MartlewTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what action she is taking to implement the ICAO recommendation on the continued close environmental monitoring and inspection of foot and mouth disposal sites and the publication and reflection in her Department's contingency plans of the results. [65191]
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§ Mr. MorleyThe Department is working closely with the Environment Agency (EA) to ensure that FMD disposal sites are effectively monitored. Up until the end of March 2002, the EA managed a programme of environmental monitoring in the areas worst affected by the outbreak. DEFRA has now taken over responsibility for this interim monitoring programme and has recently issued a tender for the sampling and analysis of selected sites throughout England and Wales.
The Department also intends to commission individual site-specific risk assessments for each carcase and ash disposal site. These assessments will be made available to the EA, who will review the environmental risk and Groundwater Authorisations. Based on the results of these risk assessments, the Department will then commission a targeted monitoring programme to ensure that any potential longer-term environmental impacts are identified.
In addition to this monitoring programme, each of the mass burial sites has its own comprehensive monitoring programme with regular reporting to DEFRA and the EA. The agency also carries out audit monitoring. Watchtree has 68 monitoring boreholes, Tow Law 32, Throckmorton 28 and Widdrington six. These boreholes are at varying distances from the cells and samples are taken, in some cases at several different depths. The Environment Agency is sampling stream springs and watercourses in the vicinity of the mass burial sites. No pollution from carcase disposal has been detected to date.
The need for formal risk assessments to be undertaken prior to the burial of carcases or ash is being incorporated into departmental operational guidance.