Welsh councils are to get extra funding to boost environmental
health services after an E.coli outbreak struck 44 schools and
killed a five-year-old boy.
First Minister Carwyn Jones made the announcement to set aside
cash after a public inquiry into the 2005 outbreak.
The investigation was chaired by Professor Hugh Pennington and
published last March.
The latest report on progress by Consumer Focus Wales says extra
funding of £2.5 million to £3 million is needed every year for five
years.
Mr Jones said he welcomed any report that sought to learn
lessons from the outbreak, but questioned whether the amount of
additional funding called for was "robust".
Contaminated meat led to 157 people, mostly children, falling
ill when E.coli O157 struck 44 schools in the South Wales valleys
and left Mason Jones dead.
The butcher who supplied the meat, William Tudor, was jailed for
a year in September 2007 after admitting placing unsafe food on the
market and failing as proprietor of a business to protect food
against the risk of contamination.
The Assembly Government rejected a criticism in the report by
Consumer Focus Wales, which accused it of failing to take a bigger
role in directing the response to the inquiry.
An earlier inquiry by Prof Pennington into the Scottish E.coli
outbreak of 1996 led to annual payments of £2.6 million, known as
Pennington Money, for environmental health.
Answering questions from AMs in the Senedd chamber, Mr Jones
said: "We will look to see what assistance we can give to local
government, but the figure that is mentioned in the report of £2.5
million to £3 million, it's not clear how robust that figure is. It
doesn't seem to be justified in any way."