Ministers draw up emergency plans for Britain

London: Emergency plans to tackle widespread food shortages in the event of a bird flu pandemic in Britain are being drawn up by ministers, according to secret Cabinet documents.

Off-duty firefighters and retired lorry drivers would be pressed into service to ensure essential food and drink supplies are delivered. Laws which restrict the daily hours of drivers and other vital workers would be suspended.

The confidential papers seen by the Sunday Telegraph show that a serious lack of long-distance HGV drivers willing to go to infected areas is seen in Whitehall as a potential "pinch point" if avian flu takes a grip.

The papers reveal government concern over a lack of preparation for a pandemic among the biggest food firms.

They also show how, in the event of a serious outbreak overseas, the Government will give preventative medicine to embassy and consular staff - but not to British holidaymakers or UK nationals who live in an infected country.

The Government fears that any pandemic could last more than six months. The documents say that Whitehall should be on alert for a pandemic on an "extended time-scale certainly for six months. . . and perhaps longer".

They also suggest "more than one pandemic wave" of bird flu. The documents were drawn up on March 22, a fortnight before a dead swan in a village in Scotland was found to have the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease.

The swan, which had been washed ashore in the village of Cellardyke, had a strain similar to that contracted by 100 birds in Germany.

Tests are continuing on hundreds of other dead birds, but so far none apart from the swan has tested positive for H5N1.

Fourteen other birds that gave rise to concern tested negative.

The documents show a lack of preparedness in Whitehall that ministers and officials are working round the clock to combat. Their disclosure came as the Government was accused of "astonishing complacency" over planning, with farmers angry about confusing advice and the £1.2 billion (Dh7.7 billion) poultry industry braced for a consumer backlash.

Industry leaders and poultry staff called for vaccinations to protect birds and farm workers, amid claims that the situation was becoming reminiscent of the foot and mouth crisis, which left thousands of animals on giant pyres.

The Government papers, which have been discussed by the Cabinet Committee on Influenza Pandemic Planning, include a blueprint for "managing the response" to a pandemic.

Whitehall would go into what officials call a full-scale "battle rhythm" with Tony Blair lined up to take personal charge at an as yet unspecified stage.

It is understood that two issues particularly concerning ministers are the difficulties of closing large numbers of schools and the provision of masks to large numbers of people, should the need arise. A Government paper revealed last week suggested that families may have to wait up to four weeks to bury their dead. Ministers warned that up to 320,000 people could die in a pandemic.