Foot and Mouth Disease ten years on

10 years ago tomorrow - a Monday morning - a farm worker at an Essex abattoir noticed some pigs, held over from Friday’s shift, in obvious distress. He called the local vet to check them over and seek advice on what to do. The vet immediately suspected something was seriously wrong.  Although it was 34 years since the last outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in mainland Britain, his first instinct was that he might be looking at a case of that animal disease. What that vet didn’t know was that it was indeed FMD and, moreover, that up and down the country the disease was already incubating in an estimated 57 farms where the symptoms had not yet been displayed in livestock. Those events on 19 February 2001 were the start of one of Britain’s longest peacetime crises.  An animal disease outbreak which quickly turned into a nationwide agricultural crisis which, before long, became an economic and social crisis for the large parts of Britain affected. What were the general lessons from that experience a decade ago?  How has government sought to embed the learning from that experience to improve the way in which it now handles crises? I was Secretary to the Lessons Learned Inquiry chaired by Sir Iain Anderson which reported in the summer of 2002. We visited all parts of the country most affected; we spoke to the key decision makers and we analysed all the evidence we were sent. Our report set out the lessons for Government to apply in preparing for any future crisis - not just in the context of handling animal disease.  How have these lessons stood the test of time?  What progress has the Government and its departments made since then? We identified nine big lessons from 2001: 1 ) Maintain vigilance through international, national and local surveillance. Government now has a far more sophisticated “horizon scanning” capability than then. 2 ) Be prepared with comprehensive contingency plans. Central and local government and many other bodies now have well tried and tested plans - ready to apply in a real life crisis. 3 ) React with speed and certainty. In 2001 COBR (the Government’s emergency management committee) was not convened for 30 days after FMD broke out.  Now it would be convened within hours. 4 ) Explain policies and practices. Good communications is vital in any crisis. Notwithstanding recent improvements in government communications, in the world of 24/7 news, instant information, plus social media such as Twitter, Facebook and other avenues of news there will always be a challenge to communicate better 5 ) Respect local knowledge. FMD affected different parts of the country very differently. Any crisis management strategy must reflect that as appropriate 6 ) Apply effective risk assessment. In 2001 many footpaths were closed to support disease control. But the effect that might have on the tourism industry was not taken into account.  So good risk management of decisions is vital 7 ) Use data and information management systems that conform to recognised best practice. Still a big challenge for government. Handling a crisis demands good information systems with up to date and accurate facts 8 ) Have the legal powers to act in response to the crisis. Government has made good progress here – not least via the introduction of the Civil Contingencies Act in 2005 And last, but by no means least, 9 ) Base policy decisions on best available science.  A decade ago Government was slow to bring together the best scientific knowledge to tackle the disease.  Now, under the auspices of the Government’s Chief Scientist, that would happen. So, government has made big strides in learning the lessons since that Monday morning in Essex 10 years ago.  And those lessons can be applied to most crises – be it a natural disaster, an industrial accident or a terrorist attack. But we should never be complacent. At the beginning of last year - in the Government’s publicly available National Risk Register - a national flu pandemic was identified as the number one risk.  Probably right. But nowhere did it feature the risk of a volcanic ash cloud from Iceland bringing chaos to national and international travel.  In crisis management planning always expect the unexpected.