Members of the official inquiry into the Government's handling of the foot-and-mouth crisis come to Devon this week.

The inquiry panel will be out and about in the county to meet local people who have been affected by the epidemic.

It is one of three inquiries set up by the Government in the wake of the disaster and falls short of being a public inquiry.

But the man who is leading the panel, Doctor Iain Anderson, said it is independent and local people will able to have their say.

Doctor Anderson said: "All relevant documents that I believe will be pertinent to our inquiry, whether they be minutes of meetings or correspondence, will be made available to the inquiry.

The EU inquiry will last 12 months

"So I don't have any doubts whatsoever that all of those officials and ministers and all of these sources of information will be made available to us without qualification."

This week's visit is one a series of regional tours the panel is doing to look at how the outbreak was managed in different parts of the country.

The inquiry panel will be in Okehampton on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Devon County Council is to officially publish the results of its public inquiry on Wednesday.

The report follows five days of hearings which were held at County Hall, Exeter, last October, where 50 witnesses gave evidence and 360 written submissions were considered.

Devon was one of the counties worst affected by the disease, with 173 cases confirmed and 390,000 animals slaughtered.

The report is expected to be particularly critical of the culling policy, which was described by one witness as "carnage by computer". It is also expected to criticise the burning of dead animals in the open.

Prof Ian Mercer, who chaired the Devon County Council public inquiry

The hearings, which were chaired by Professor Ian Mercer, were told of the insensitive treatment of individuals and communities faced by events outside their control.

In its preliminary findings, the inquiry called for a national contingency plan to respond to any future outbreak.

Farming Minister Lord Whitty rejected criticism that its handling of the foot-and-mouth crisis in Devon was "lamentable". He said the Government had been faced with an unprecedented situation, with no warning.

An inquiry into the causes and consequences of Britain's foot-and-mouth outbreak has also been launched by the European Parliament.

On January 15, a day after Britain was finally declared free of the disease, Euro MPs in Strasbourg voted to set up a "temporary committee" to look at how the disease was handled and how to prevent it happening again.

It has a mandate to investigate the outbreak for 12 months before producing a report and recommendations, but it does not have any legal powers.

The EU inquiry will look into the financial impact of the disease, what caused the outbreak and the implications of vaccination.

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