Delays in calling in the Army to help deal with the foot-and-mouth epidemic prolonged the misery for farmers and increased the cost for taxpayers, the last of three independent reports was concluding today.

The Lessons to be Learned inquiry, led by Iain Anderson, a former adviser to the Prime Minister, is expected to criticise ministers for the way they dealt with the outbreak.

The report examines the handling of the crisis and recommends how the Government should tackle another major animal disease outbreak.

The inquiry calls for the Army to be enlisted immediately to help combat a new outbreak and says ministers should have done so sooner than they did during the last outbreak, according to leaked details of the study.

According to reports Dr Anderson will highlight the role of former agriculture minister Nick Brown, who was in charge during the crisis, in delaying the Army's involvement.

Mr Brown was later moved to the Department of Work and Pensions. A spokesman for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said it could not comment on leaked reports and said Rural Affairs Secretary Margaret Beckett would be making a statement to Parliament today.

But National Union of Farmers president Ben Gill, who gave evidence on a number of issues covered by the report, blamed ''bureaucracy'' for ''clouding'' the speed of the military response.

''The key issues that we brought up were proper contingency planning, proper border protection and a properly funded research project,'' he said.

''They need to deliver the assurances that society so clearly needs in terms of alternative control measures instead of slaughtering so many animals.''