DOWNING Street has been accused of hampering efforts to bring in the Army at the onset of last year's foot-and-mouth crisis which devastated parts of Worcestershire and Herefordshire.
Several inquiries have found that using the Army earlier would have shortened the epidemic.
A key recommendation of the Northumberland Inquiry, set up after the last foot-and-mouth outbreak in 1967, was also that the Army should be engaged as soon as possible.
But senior Government officials last night told the Commons public accounts committee that Defra was frustrated by having to go through a "new process" that required them to refer to the Prime Minister.
"It took 29 days before you called the military in," said George Osborne, a Conservative member of the committee.
George Trevelyan, director of foot and mouth operations at Defra, said the process of engaging the military had changed.
"It was necessary to go through the process," he said.
David Liddington, shadow Defra secretary, said the revelations were"scandalous".
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