Volume 9: Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Part 1: Wales
5.
Chronological account of specific Welsh issues
The ruminant feed ban,
1 and slaughter and compensation
5.4 The Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Order 1988 introduced compulsory notification of BSE in June 1988 and the ruminant feed ban in July 1988. Both measures were introduced simultaneously in Wales and the rest of Great Britain (see the Annex to this volume). Compulsory slaughter and compensation was introduced just over a month later with the compensation rate set at 50 per cent of market value. 2 Welsh farmers almost immediately expressed their dissatisfaction with this rate, taking the view that it was unrealistic to expect producers to bear half the loss of stock affected and slaughtered. 3 During the course of a regular meeting with the Agriculture Advisory Panel for Wales in May 1989, Mr John Davies, the Head of WOAD at the time, was advised of a serious consequence of this dissatisfaction:
. . . it was also fairly certain that farmers were seeking to mitigate their losses by sending animals to slaughter at the first hint of the disease being present. 4
5.5 Mr Davies regarded this situation as untenable. He advised the Secretary of State, Mr Peter Walker, to put it to the Agriculture Ministers that the existing policy should be reviewed. Mr Walker did so on 5 May, 5 but the MAFF Minister, Mr John MacGregor, replied that he had seen no evidence that farmers were acting in this way and that he could find no justification for increasing the compensation. He added that he did not see the 'remotest possibility' of securing the Treasury's agreement to an increase. 6
5.6 Ten months later, Mr MacGregor's successor, Mr John Gummer, wrote to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Norman Lamont, making the same proposal on similar grounds. 7 Mr Walker gave support to the proposal with a reference to his letter of the previous May. 8 Mr Lamont concurred two days later, on 9 February, 9 and compensation for affected and slaughtered cattle was increased with effect from 14 February 1990 to 100 per cent of average market value. 10
1 The ruminant feed ban prohibited, initially until 1 January 1989, '(1) the sale and supply for feeding to ruminating animals of any feeding stuff in which any animal protein (as defined in the Order) has been incorporated and (2) the feeding to ruminating animals of any such feeding stuff' (the BSE Order 1988 - L2 tab 1). The ruminant feed ban was introduced because ruminant feed was thought to be the vector of the BSE agent
2 See vol. 3: The Early Years, 1986-88 and vol. 5: Animal Health, 1989-96 for a full account of the BSE Orders which introduced the ruminant feed ban and compulsory slaughter and compensation
3 YB88/7.11/9.1
4 S360 Davies J para. 5
5 YB89/5.05/5.1. Mr Walker was well acquainted with the BSE crisis and its implications, having attended the Cabinet Meeting on 23 February at which the Southwood Report was discussed, prior to publication. He was also a member of the Ministerial Group on Food Safety (MISC 138), which had discussed BSE at a meeting on 7 February. See YB89/2.22/16.1-16.2
6 YB89/5.15/4.1
7 YB90/2.07/2.1-2.4
8 YB90/2.12/7.1
9 YB90/2.09/4.1-4.2
10 This was effected by means of the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Compensation Order 1990 (No. 222 of 1990). For a comparative chart of BSE legislation in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, see Annex
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