The BSE blackout Open government is the answer

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

And still more admissions from the UK BSE Inquiry!!!

Cheers etc., Lynette.

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THE GUARDIAN, London, October 13, 1998

Leader: The BSE blackout

Open government is the answer

Tuesday October 13, 1998

It is not just ministers who

instinctively resist open

government. Civil servants, too, have

been even more

ferocious opponents. It was one of

the earliest programmes

the " Yes Minister " team put together

to illustrate how initial

political enthusiasm for an idea can

be turned by skilful

mandarins. A Freedom of Information

Act has been

included in six successive Labour

Party manifestos. In the

1992 version, Labour pledged itself

to instruct counsel to

begin drafting on day one with

enactment promised within

the first year. Eighteen months after

last year's general

election success, we have a

government white paper but no

draft bill and no indication it will

be included in the next

session of Parliament. Yet consider

how open government

would have helped health officials in

their Whitehall war

with Agriculture over the BSE scandal.

The battle between officials has been

exposed by the

current inquiry. Yesterday the chief

medical officer (CMO)

appeared before the panel. In his

already submitted written

evidence - as we reported on Saturday

- he revealed his

dismay over his belated discovery

that safeguards in

slaughter houses were being flouted,

seriously increasing the

risk of contaminated offal getting

into the food chain. The

degree to which MAFF officials

delayed informing health

advisers of crucial information has

been documented in

detail by the inquiry. It was not

until March, 1988, the

CMO was told about BSE - nine months

after agriculture

ministers had been informed.

Similarly, health officials first

heard about the ban on cattle offal

entering the food chain

from a newspaper, not a MAFF

official. And when BSE

finally jumped to a cat - signalling

its capacity to jump

species - pet food manufacturers were

told of the cat's

death before health department

officials.

Open government would have allowed a

much more open

public debate. Prof , the

Oxford epidemiologist,

asked for data which MAFF held on its

central laboratory

computer to analyse the spread of the

disease. He was

denied it for several years delaying

his study which

demonstrated that cattle feed

safeguards were not being

properly implemented. Civil servants

instinctively shy away

from the rough and tumble of public

debate. But BSE is just

the latest example of how closed

government reduces the

quality of decision-taking.

Ironically, even MAFF officials

must by now have concluded that

closed government is no

guarantee of cosy government. Rarely

have officials been so

publicly excoriated.