Skip to main content
Service phase: Beta

This is a new way to search our records, which we're still working on. Alternatively you can search our existing catalogue, Discovery.

Series

Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food: BSE Inquiry: Chief Veterinary Officers...

Catalogue reference: MAF 707

What's it about?

MAF 707

This series contains the records and papers which chart the activities of the Chief Veterinary Officer and his team throughout the course of the BSE emergency.

Full description and record details

Reference

MAF 707

Title
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food: BSE Inquiry: Chief Veterinary Officers Papers
Date

1987-1996

Description

This series contains the records and papers which chart the activities of the Chief Veterinary Officer and his team throughout the course of the BSE emergency.

Held by
The National Archives, Kew
Former department reference

Unregistered folders

Legal status

Public Record(s)

Language

English

Creator(s)
  • Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Animal Health and Veterinary Group, 1990-1996
  • Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Chief Veterinary Officer's Group, 1996-2000
Physical description

116 file(s)

Access conditions

Open

Immediate source of acquisition

In 2018 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Accumulation dates

1990 to 1996

Accruals

No further accruals are anticipated

Selection and destruction information

Records selected under the Records Collection Policy (3.1.2 structures and decision-making processes in government, and 3.1.4 states interaction with the physical environment).

Administrative / biographical background

The BSE Inquiry was a massive undertaking. Lord Phillips and his team spent nearly three years examining what happened day by day during the ten years that led up to the announcement of 20 March 1996 that BSE had probably generated a new and fatal human disease. More than 1,200 people submitted written evidence to the Inquiry; there were 138 days of public oral evidence from 333 witnesses and the team looked at 3,000 files of contemporary official documents. Up until 2001 the full estimated cost of the Inquiry to the public purse was about £29 million. The final Inquiry report was expected to consist of a main volume of perhaps 100-200 pages (containing the key findings, criticisms and recommendations and 15 supporting volumes each of at least 100 pages, amounting to 4,000 pages in all)

Record URL
https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C15527204/

Catalogue hierarchy

Over 27 million records

This record is held at The National Archives, Kew

184,561 records

Within the department: MAF

Records created or inherited by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Departments,...

You are currently looking at the series: MAF 707

Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food: BSE Inquiry: Chief Veterinary Officers Papers