Charles Kennedy tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme: We need a Food Standards Agency

Recent speculation has led to reports that legislation to create the proposed Food Standards Agency will be delayed for at least a year.

Liberal Democrat rural affairs spokesman Charles Kennedy has called for the government to deliver its plans in the next parliamentary session following evidence from former Chief Medical Officer Sir Kenneth Calman to the BSE inquiry.

Kennedy: Wants legislation to be in the Queen's speech

Sir Kenneth told the inquiry that Ministry of Agriculture officials had tried to play down fears over the potential threat posed by mad cow disease.

Mr Kennedy told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Sir Kenneth's evidence "even standing alone, makes very strongly the case for ensuring that the Food Standards Agency legislation does appear in this year's Queen's Speech".

He said there were currently "turf wars going on within Whitehall which at the end of the day are unlikely to be serving either the agricultural interests or the wider consumer interests".

Sir Kenneth told the inquiry official advice during the early 1990s that British beef was "safe" to eat had not meant it posed no possible risk to human health.

Sir Kenneth Calman: Officials played down fears

As Chief Medical Officer for England from 1991 until he stepped down last month, and before that Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, Sir Kenneth had repeatedly assured the public that British beef was safe to eat.

He justified his advice to the BSE inquiry by saying "safe" did not necessarily mean "zero risk".

Scientific evidence available at the time did not suggest a significant danger from eating beef, he added.

Consumers' Association director Sheila McKechnie said the Ministry of Agriculture, together with farming, was putting health second after their own interests

The Chief Medical Officer's role needed looking at in the "widest constitutional sense because I don't think we can have this kind of secrecy, people talking to other departments, knowing there is a problem and actually not doing anything about it", she said.