HSE Regulation of Pirbright Laboratories Welcome - Huhne

3.22.18pm GMT Thu 13th Dec 2007

Commenting on Hilary Benn's response to the Callaghan Report into the foot-and-mouth outbreak in Surrey, Liberal Democrat Shadow Defra Secretary, Chris Huhne MP said:

"Now that Pirbright and Compton are to be regulated by the Health and Safety Executive, there will hopefully be no repeat of the catalogue of errors that led to the foot-and-mouth outbreak.

"There was a clear conflict of interest between Defra both regulating and funding Pirbright. The lack of due diligence by Defra beggars belief.

"We now learn that contaminated top soil was sold to farmers which caused the second wave of infection. This is a dreadful indictment of Defra's failure to follow basic procedures.

"However, the culture of impunity at Defra continues, as no one has taken responsibility.

"Even worse, farmers have yet to be adequately compensated. The Government has to learn that if it fails to hold people to account for mistakes, it will merely encourage more of them."