Volume 9: Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Part 2: Scotland
11. Comment
SVS advice

11.22 On the other hand, the Scottish Office did have the advantage of an on-the-spot source of professional advice on the animal health aspects of BSE through the State Veterinary Service. Mr Thomson, Mr Davison and Dr Matheson all affirmed the close working relations and free exchange of information on animal health matters which they had with the ACVO for Scotland and his staff, located 'two or three doors along the corridor'. ¹ Mr Davison said that if he needed anything, 'it would come from Mr Scudamore or his staff'. ² When Dr Matheson succeeded Mr Davison in 1994, Mr Scudamore gave him 'a full education of the facts of life on BSE'. ³ Dr Kendell as CMO and Dr McIntyre also relied heavily on his advice. Mr Scudamore told us:

We worked as a team at Pentland House, there were administrative colleagues and the Veterinary Unit. We generally provided the veterinary advice to the administrative colleagues who then brought up submissions to the Ministers. ⁴

11.23 He saw this as a double flow of information:

Indirectly they were getting veterinary advice from England through the English administrators; and they were getting direct veterinary advice from us. ⁵

11.24 The picture we formed was that Mr Scudamore discharged his responsibilities as chief Veterinary Adviser to the Scottish Office zealously and admirably, on the basis of the information available to him. However, it would seem that the Scottish Office consequently assessed the BSE situation very much through his eyes and, beyond that, those of MAFF. When we put this point to Mr Scudamore, he replied that he would have expected his advice to have formed no more than one element of the Scottish Office assessment. ⁶ We agree.