Volume 14: Responsibilities for Human and Animal Health
2. Identification and control of animals showing symptoms of disease
Introduction
The Animal Health Act 1981

2.1 Effective control of a new disease in animals required government to identify its nature and extent as quickly as possible. Bearing in mind that animals are raised on thousands of separately owned holdings, often in remote areas, this is no easy task. This chapter describes the powers and duties available under the Animal Health Act 1981 in respect of:

1. the identification of outbreaks of animal disease;
2. the assessment of their severity and status; and
3. the means of controlling the spread of the disease

that were in force at the end of 1986. It then considers the changes made to these powers and duties from that date until 20 March 1996, where these changes were not prompted by BSE.

The Animal Health Act 1981

2.2 This Act consolidated earlier animal health legislation and applied to England, Wales and Scotland. Its equivalent in Northern Ireland was the Diseases of Animals (Northern Ireland) Order 1981, ¹ which explicitly covered a larger number of diseases but which was essentially similar as far as BSE was concerned and is therefore not described separately.

2.3 The Act gave Ministers wide Order-making powers to prevent the spread of disease. There was no requirement to consult before making such Orders. The Act defined 'disease' to mean, unless the context required otherwise, cattle plague, pleuro-pneumonia, foot and mouth disease, sheep-pox, sheep scab, or swine fever, but it specifically allowed for the definition of 'disease' to be extended to include any other animal disease.

2.4 The powers granted by the Act were exercisable by the Minister of Agriculture for the whole of Great Britain, by the Minister of Agriculture, the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Secretary of State for Wales acting jointly, or by 'the appropriate Minister' which meant the Minister of Agriculture in England and the appropriate Secretary of State in either Scotland or Wales.

2.5 The Animal Health Act 1981 was not restricted to the prevention of disease in animals. It also empowered Ministers to designate as a zoonosis ² any disease or organism carried in animals which in their opinion constituted a risk to humans; the Act could then be used to make Orders for the purpose of preventing the spread of disease between animals and between animals and humans.

2.6 Many of these Order-making powers derived from earlier legislation which had been deployed against diseases such as brucellosis and tuberculosis (TB) in cattle, foot and mouth disease, or non-cattle infections such as salmonella in eggs and poultry, and swine fever. Orders continued to be made under the Act against these and other diseases both before and after 1986. Many such Orders were relevant to all kinds of disease, including BSE; for example, restrictions on the movement of animals under section 8, provision for slaughter and compensation under sections 31-34, and the notification of disease under section 15. Other Order-making powers were more specific in their direction or application; for example, those dealing with the seizure and disposal of carcasses under section 35, which were applied only to BSE and a few other diseases.

2.7 A particular feature of the Animal Health Act 1981 was that it offered a quick and simple process for the introduction of secondary legislation. Mrs Elizabeth Attridge, the Under Secretary head of the Animal Health Group of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF), told the Inquiry:

Statutory instruments under the Animal Health Act are relatively easy to make. They are laid before Parliament and have no Parliamentary procedure. On that particular Act it was not difficult to make statutory instruments, unlike the Food Act which was very difficult. ³

2.8 Almost all the Orders made under this Act could be brought into effect by non-parliamentary procedure. This consisted simply of publishing the Order in the official government publications, the London Gazette and the Edinburgh Gazette, and by requiring local authorities notified by the Minister to publish the Order in a newspaper circulating in their areas, or publicise it by some other means required by the Minister. An exception to this was an Order made under section 32, which concerned the slaughter of and compensation for animals with diseases other than those listed in section 31. ⁴ Orders made under section 32, which was used for BSE, were subject to the negative resolution procedure. ⁵

2.9 The Animal Health Act was also unusual in that section 60 gave the police force of each police area responsibility for its execution and enforcement. ⁶ But in addition 'inspectors' were given wide enforcement powers by section 63 of the Act. Inspectors were appointed on the one hand by the Minister, in which case their powers extended throughout Great Britain or the area to which they were appointed; and on the other, by each local authority, ⁷ which was required by section 52 to appoint as many inspectors as it thought necessary for the execution and enforcement of the Act.