Foot and Mouth Disease: Contamination
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the answer of 24 March 2026, to Question 113652, on Foot and Mouth Disease: Contamination, whether the Environment Agency has given any advice or guidance on the planning and environmental constraints of developing sites close to foot and mouth burial pits in flood risk areas.
Answered by Emma Hardy
The responsibility for the disposal of carcasses and ash during the 2001 Foot and Mouth outbreak rested with DEFRA (then Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food), subject to the Groundwater Regulations 1998, which were administered by the Environment Agency. These Regulations required a prior investigation or risk assessment before burial could be authorised.
Burial site selection was based on a risk assessment process that, as a minimum, involved a desk-based screening exercise and the application of defined “Good Practice” criteria. Larger sites, or those in areas more vulnerable to water pollution, were subject to additional quantitative risk assessment. Good practice required that sites were not located in areas prone to surface flooding and were at least 30 metres from any watercourse.
The Environment Agency therefore does not routinely advise on the environmental constraints of developing sites near historic burial locations in flood risk areas. Local authorities are responsible for local public health.
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