THE Government will today be accused of "a catalogue of mismanagement" during the foot-and-mouth outbreak which devastated large parts of Worcestershire and Herefordshire.

The 200-page Lessons Learned inquiry, chaired by Iain Anderson, is due to be published by Agriculture Secretary Margaret Beckett at Westminster this afternoon.

According to reports, the document will attack Ministers for "incompetence" and the "primary mistake" of not calling in the Army in the first week of the epidemic - which cost at least £8bn.

They will also be criticised for the blanket closure of footpaths which sent out a message to tourists that Britain was closed for business.

Businesses in Worcester and the surrounding countryside reported losing millions of pounds as British and overseas visitors stayed away in droves.

The key focus of the report is expected to be the delay in using the Army to carry out the cull of millions of animals.

Reduced culling

It is expected to say the scale of the outbreak could have been reduced if they had been called in sooner. In the end, 10 million animals were killed.

Former Agriculture Minister Nick Brown has said he was in daily discussions with the Ministry of Defence from the first day of the epidemic last February, although the Army was not called in until Day 25.

The report will say that this was a major mistake - particularly as the main recommendation of the report into the 1967/68 outbreak was to enlist military help at once.

Mid-Worcestershire MP Peter Luff believes the delay was the responsibility of Prime Minister Tony Blair - rather than Mr Brown.

He said today this was because of the PM's "political vanity" and not wanting to upset General Election plans.

"If this is the case, the Prime Minister must apologise publicly for his actions," Mr Luff added.

The report will also criticise the Government for running down animal health services, cutting money for research and under-estimating the outbreak.

National Farmers' Union president Ben Gill's stance on vaccination is also expected to be cast into the spotlight, along with Ministers and officials.

Last week, the Royal Society inquiry recommended the use of emergency vaccination as a "weapon of first resort" in future instead of mass culling. But during last year's outbreak there was fierce opposition to the move, and indecision from the Government.

Speaking in advance of her statement in the Commons, Mrs Beckett said much of the criticism benefited from "20-20 hindsight".