Civil servants were yesterday accused by MPs of a cover-up, after they suppressed information on plans to tackle a predicted rise in deaths and pollution-related illness caused by a new generation of waste-burning incinerators. Ministers were furious that the information had not been highlighted to them - days after Lord Phillips, the law lord who headed the BSE inquiry, had condemned the secrecy across Whitehall.
Michael Meacher, the environment minister, said: "I cannot recall seeing these figures and as I have specifically asked civil servants to highlight any information and not hide it away in annexes I shall be taking this up immediately. As for not being consulted about whether this information should be released, I shall be demanding an explanation from the environment agency."
Last night, Christine Butler, MP for Castle Point in Essex, backed up Mr Meacher's stand, saying Whitehall's behaviour "resembled the secretive attitudes of civil servants in the way they handled BSE".
The disclosure of Whitehall's refusal to release correspondence between the agency and the ministry on plans to tackle the problem of deaths was revealed in evidence from Alan Watson, an engineer, and Keith Collins, an economist, of Public Interest Consultants, a not-for-profit consultancy, to the Commons environment committee.
It comes after the Department of Environment released figures showing that at present 88 people die and 168 people are hospitalised every year for lung-related diseases associated with emissions from the country's 12 incinerators. The detailed report also said people's lives will be shortened by cancer-causing dioxins from incinerators.
Plans to at least double or even triple the number of incinerators could see the number of deaths rise to 100 and possibly higher each year.
Mr Collins told MPs that Mr Watson had used the European Union open government code for environmental information - which is less secretive than the government's new freedom of information bill - to try to obtain the release of correspondence between the environment agency and the ministry.
Both have admitted to holding meetings and planning how they intend to tackle health hazards caused by new incinerators and how they could affect the environment and the food chain.
Confidential minutes of the latest meeting of the environment agency board on October 13 say: "The agency has been discussing with the department of the environment, transport and the regions and the department of health, the development of a national, rather than agency, policy on health impacts from incineration."
But officials from both ministries refused to release the correspondence to Mr Watson saying that it should be regarded as policy advice and "could adversely affect future working relationships and policy development with the department of health."
When Mr Watson appealed, officials said it would cost him £200 for the environment agency to conduct a full search and then claimed no such correspondence existed. This contradicted minutes sent to Mr Watson by the Department of Health showing a draft paper had been sent in July by the environment agency to the ministry on death and illness figures from air pollution from incinerators.
Stefan Carlyle, head of scientific and technical information service of the agency, also told him that ministers had not been consulted about the refusal to release the information: "I can inform you that Mr Meacher was not advised of our decision."
Andrew Bennett, Labour chairman of the environment committee, last night demanded to see the correspondence between Mr Watson and the ministries.
