The inquiry into the farm virus will last 12 months

He 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.

"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 in 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.

Devon inquiry results

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.

Professor Mercer: call for national contingency plan

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.

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".

European parliament

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 15 January, 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 investigation will look into the financial impact of the disease, what caused the outbreak and the implications of vaccination.