IT is easy to talk about lessons to be learned when the spectre of foot-and-mouth no longer hangs over the British countryside.

But for farmers in the North-East and North Yorkshire who saw their livelihoods crippled, it has come a little too late.

Rob Simpson, North-East spokesman of the National Farmers' Union (NFU) said: "It's okay saying 'let's learn some lessons', but the epidemic lasted for seven months - there's no reason why they couldn't have been learned after five or six months.

"That includes the need for better contingency planning, better organisation and management of the disease, the need for wide consultation with farmers and better communication."

Today's report, published by the National Audit Office, gives a catalogue of lessons to be learned.

One of the main concerns centres on how unprepared Britain was for the way the disease would take hold of the farming industry.

Contingency plans were made on the basis that there would not be more than ten infected premises at any one time. By the time the outbreak was confirmed, there were at least 57 disease-ridden premises.

The report says there were "severe problems" in handling the outbreak in the worst-hit areas, such as the North East, because of the grip the disease already had.

The Government is severely criticised for not imposing a movement ban quickly enough and the report says that initially there were not enough people to cope with the scale of the epidemic.

There were not enough vets in the early weeks of the outbreak, which delayed bringing the outbreak under control. The Army was not called in for three weeks, because the Government felt the epidemic "presented no obvious requirement for military participation".

In addition, Government departments, agencies and other parties affected were not formally consulted in preparing contingency plans.

While pyres burned and the stench of rotting carcases filled the air last year, the only smell in the aftermath has been of fraudulent claims among contractors and farmers.

Many contracts, which would normally be put out to tender, were awarded without competition. Some were agreed verbally, which later gave rise to disputes over what had been agreed.

"Information was often lacking to support the payment of bills," said the report.

"The Department was frequently unable to monitor the work being carried out by contractors, especially the slaughter and disposal of animals, and the cleansing and disinfection of farms."

But the report also acknowledges how the disease was wiped out in seven months - the same time it took to eradicate the 1967-68 outbreak - and details how Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs staff worked "punishingly long days in stressful and often distressing conditions".

Dr John Bourn, head of the audit office, said: "There are lessons to be learned for the whole of Government from the foot-and-mouth crisis.

"Urgent action is needed to produce contingency plans which would be more sensitive to outbreaks of different scales and thus better suited to dealing with a future crisis on this scale."