WE have all been waiting with great apprehension to see whether the Foot and Mouth outbreak in Surrey has spread. None of us will forget the devastation in 2001 when over 7 million animals were slaughtered. Hatherleigh was the epicentre of that catastrophe and I know many there are especially nervous. Not just farmers but the whole community. The Government should be congratulated on their prompt response to this outbreak and it is clear that some of the lessons of 2001 have been learned. Nonetheless there are serious questions which remain to be answered, the most important of these relating to the cause of the outbreak itself. Pirbright is clearly the prime suspect and here the Government is on difficult ground. A 2002 report by the Biotechnology and Biological Research Council described Pirbright?s facilities as ?shabby? and ?substandard?. Both the Institute for Animal Health and Merial (the two operators on the site) are inspected and licensed by the Government and if it is conclusively determined (as seems likely) that Pirbright was the source of the outbreak then the tolerance of these low standards will be a serious charge for the Government to answer. The fact that organisations responsible for stopping Foot and Mouth might actually have been culpable in starting it will provide added poignancy. Let us keep our fingers crossed and hope that the movement and export bans which are causing such hardship to our farmers can soon be lifted. But let us also take a thorough approach to determining what happened this time around in the hope it may never happen again. Mel Stride Conservative Candidate for Central Devon