Volume 9: Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Part 2: Scotland
10. Chronological account of specific Scottish issues
Graham Hart's concern over the handling of the BSE risk

10.49 On 27 August 1990 Mr Davison at DAFS minuted Ministers and senior Scottish Office personnel, including Mr (now Sir) Graham Hart, the Head of SHHD, about the Agriculture Select Committee's report on BSE. This Report had recommended that there should be a statutory ban on the inclusion of SBO in pet food; that offal from calves under 6 months of age should be banned; and that farmers should be discouraged from breeding from BSE-infected cattle. Mr Davison advised Ministers to reject these recommendations but suggested that the pet food issue should be referred to SEAC for further investigation. He also suggested that Ministers could undertake to reconsider a ban on offal from calves under 6 months should new scientific evidence come to light. ¹ Mr Davison's minute made several recommendations about responding to the Report, with which Mr Hart did not entirely agree.

10.50 Mr Hart wrote to the Head of DAFS, Mr Loudon Hamilton, a week later expressing his concerns, which he said were shared by the CMO. He said that he was 'suspicious' of the argument that certain practices, such as the use of offal from calves under 6 months old, should be allowed to continue simply because there was no evidence that it was harmful. A judgement had to be applied. A good deal of caution was necessary, not in maintaining the status quo but in assuming something was safe because no one had yet shown it to be unsafe. He said:

It seems to me important to give no ground for reasonable people to think that it is the economic considerations which are dictating policy on human health issues. References to the well being of the knacker industry don't cut much ice if there is risk to human health. ²

10.51 In response to this, Mr Davison minuted Mr Scudamore with his view that:

. . . some of our own medical colleagues consider that the English CMO had been manipulated into echoing Mr Gummer's 'beef is safe' statement. Our CMO kept his counsel at that time and I know from Dr McIntyre that the medics are taking a good deal of interest in BSE and CJD. They have more questions than are expressed or implied in Mr Hart's minute. ³

10.52 Mr Davison suggested that a seminar should be held to allow Health officials 'a chance to air their concerns' and Agriculture officials 'a chance to explain our position'. This duly took place during January 1991 and Dr Richard Kimberlin from SEAC gave a presentation on BSE. ⁴ Mr Hart moved from the Scottish Office in March 1992 to become Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health in Whitehall, a position he continued to hold until November 1997. ⁵