In a report published today the Public Accounts Committee says Government is not sufficiently prioritising the “significant threat to UK health, trade, farming and rural communities” posed by animal diseases.
The report can be accessed here: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5803/cmselect/cmpubacc/42/report.html
Due to his significant expertise in animal welfare and disease prevention, Penrith and The Border MP Dr Neil Hudson, a veterinary surgeon and member of the EFRA Committee, was invited to sit as a guest member of the Public Accounts Committee as they took evidence for their report. The PAC scrutinises how public money is spent, and public services are delivered.
The risk of animal disease is real and the consequences can be devastating: the Foot and Mouth disease outbreak in 2001, more recently Avian Influenza and of course COVID-19 showed the breadth of impact disease outbreak can ultimately have across society.
The Committee found there were “over 1,000 ‘single points of failure’ that would cause “major disruption” at the Weybridge site. Due to the considerable time taken to get a redevelopment programme up and running a “critical works ‘patch and repair’ programme” will run until the redevelopment programme is due to be completed in 2036.
The Committee says the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has “comprehensively failed in its historical management” of the UK’s primary site for managing plant and animal disease threats at the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) Weybridge site. Deterioration due to “inadequate management and under-investment” has left the site “continually vulnerable to a major breakdown” which would severely impact the ability to effectively respond to disease outbreaks. The centre would already “struggle” with higher than a medium category outbreak, or any multiple outbreaks. The UK faces current and ongoing threats from Bovine Tuberculosis and potential diseases including African Swine Fever and rabies.
Dame Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said “After the 2001 disaster of foot and mouth disease, the past decades have brought one animal sourced disease after another. It is shocking that government has allowed UK capacity in this area to deteriorate so alarmingly over that same period. These diseases are devastating for our food production systems, economy and, when they jump the species barrier to humans as COVID-19 did, to our whole society. Government must get a grip on this crucial and much delayed redevelopment programme. When it comes to the safety of our country we cannot afford more of the waste and delivery failures that continue to characterise far too many major projects.”
Dr Neil Hudson MP for Penrith and The Border and Member of the EFRA Select Committee said:
“The Public Accounts Committee Report on Animal Health Infrastructure makes stark reading. As a vet and EFRA Committee MP I was honoured to be invited to join the PAC for their Evidence session for the report. The work the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) does goes under the radar for people at large until we are faced with a dangerous disease outbreak which we are dealing with valiantly at the moment with the Avian Influenza Outbreak. The Weybridge site is pivotal in our defence against outbreaks and it is vital it is redeveloped as a priority. If this is not done, the consequences could be devastating. This is so important for my Cumbrian constituency and other areas where livestock farming is critical to the local economy and at the heart of our rural community.”
“This issue is personal to me as I was deployed on the ground as a Veterinary Surgeon during the culls of the 2001 Foot and Mouth Crisis, bearing witness to scenes I never want to see again. In fact, my decision to become a politician was directly impacted by these experiences.”
“The PAC Report drives home the need for a strong, fully financed animal health infrastructure able to prevent diseases and provide resolute action when disaster strikes.”
