Volume 6: Human Health, 1989-96
4. Human health developments:January - December 1990
Food safety initiatives by Mr Gummer

4.23 Shortly after Mr Gummer's appointment as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in July 1989, he introduced a number of initiatives relevant to food safety matters within the Ministry. Below, we look at those initiatives relevant to the BSE story.

4.24 First, he established a clear division, amongst his junior Ministers, between consumer interests and the food, farming and fishery industries. Mr David Maclean was made Minister for Food Safety with responsibilities for food safety and regulation, food science, animal health and welfare, animal medicines, meat hygiene, pesticide safety, biotechnology issues and emergency services. As Food Minister, Mr Maclean was to be responsible for consumer interests. Mr David Curry was made Minister for Farming, Fisheries and the Food Industry with responsibilities for farm production, trade in agricultural commodities, food industry matters, external trade policy, and EC matters. ¹

4.25 Second, Mr Gummer promoted the principle that the customer and the consumer came first. ² He sought to implement this principle by setting up the Food Safety Directorate to divide food safety from food production within MAFF, and the Consumer Panel with the aim of giving customers a direct means of conveying their views on food safety and consumer protection to MAFF. ³ The Consumer Panel was to be chaired by the Food Minister, and to comprise representatives of consumers nominated by the main consumer bodies. The Panel was to provide 'a more formal and systematic means of maintaining contact between MAFF and the consumer organisations'. ⁴ Both of these initiatives were announced by a MAFF press release on 2 November 1989, in which Mr Gummer said:

The Food Safety Directorate, together with the new arrangements for bringing to bear more directly and systematically the views of consumer organisations, will strengthen my Department's organisation for dealing with food safety issues. ⁵

4.26 Third, in relation to disclosure of information on food safety, Mr Gummer sought to promote a policy of openness. He told the Inquiry: 'I was determined to adopt a practice of completely sharing all the information available on food safety issues.' ⁶ On BSE, Mr Gummer set out to be:

utterly open with the public who were to know all that we knew. We would seek to present that information in a manner that neither underrated the concern nor sensationalised it. Openness of this kind gives the consumer the opportunity not only to make up his own mind on questions such as 'Is beef safe?' but also enables him to judge the adequacy of the government's response and the measures taken. ⁷

4.27 Fourth, Mr Gummer established the principle of making available to the public the results of all research into BSE as the results emerged. He established this principle at the end of January 1990 during discussions with MAFF officials on the presentation of results on transmission research which were announced by means of a MAFF press release on 1 February 1990 (discussed further in our third main topic below). ⁸