Shadow DEFRA Minister Dr Neil Hudson MP has celebrated a campaign win, following the Government’s announcement it will be investing £1billion on a redevelopment of the Animal Plant and Health Agency Headquarters, but urged the Government to make progress as a matter of urgency.
Earlier today, the Government confirmed that as part of its’ National Security Strategy, the Government will be investing a further £1billion to redevelop the frontline of UK biosecurity, the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s Headquarters in Weybridge.
The announcement comes after Dr Neil Hudson MP pressed the mission critical nature of this redevelopment for UK biosecurity no less than seventeen times in Parliament since July last year.
Dr Hudson has repeatedly set out for Ministers the real biosecurity risks present right now that demand this response, including Avian Influenza and Bluetongue Virus present here in the UK, combined with the threat of Foot and Mouth disease and African Swine Fever on the European continent. Foot and Mouth Disease alone has been detected in Germany, Hungary and Slovakia this year.
These risks are only further heightened by the Government’s ineffective approach to illegal meat imports at the UK border, where nearly the entirety of illegal meat seized last year has been seized between January and April alone in 2025, leaving the UK at the mercy of unidentifiable amounts of illegal meat in the UK market. This too is something Dr Hudson has enforced to Ministers, doing so only last Thursday in Oral Parliamentary Questions to DEFRA.
In that same DEFRA Questions session, Dr Hudson shone a light on this month’s National Audit Office “Resilience to animal disease outbreaks” report to Ministers. It alarmingly concluded that the UK is incapable of responding to more severe disease animal outbreaks or outbreaks of more than one disease outbreaking at the same time. Worryingly even further still, it showed DEFRA’s own assessment places the risk of the APHA Headquarters failing is at its maximum.
Should new outbreaks emerge, outbreaks could have huge ramifications to animal health and welfare, the wellbeing and profitability of their farms, as well as human health in cases where diseases are zoonotic.
Since 2022, the National Audit Office explicitly outlined that £2.8billion was required to complete this vital infrastructure work. The previous Government began this critical project with £1.2billion of funding, and the election of the current Government required them to provide the remaining £1.6million necessary.
Prior to today’s announcement, the Government had only guaranteed a further £208million for the project and would confirm no further progress on this essential objective when asked by Dr Hudson to advance it.
This progress, however, does still leave a shortfall of around £200 million on the £2.8billion total required. Likewise, the Government’s plans means that the project is not expected to be completed until 2034, with interim labs in the meantime not available until 2027-2028. Dr Hudson is clear that progress must begin as soon as possible amidst the picture of threats to biosecurity and will continue to push the Government to make that critical progress.
In light of this announcement, Dr Hudson has said:
“The Labour Government has finally realised the importance of biosecurity and funding the APHA at Weybridge. I have asked 17 times in this current Parliament for this funding to be delivered - it should not have taken this long. I welcome that they have finally listened to the Conservatives on this, but the Labour Government however needs to provide clarity as they have failed to announce the necessary full figure of £1.4 billion needed to complete the project that the last Government started, and they now need to step up to the plate and fully fund the site at Weybridge and complete it at pace.”
"As a veterinary surgeon I spent a period in the frontline in the 2001 Foot and Mouth Outbreak, so I know firsthand how important this funding is, and how crucial it is that Labour delivers it promptly. We will continue to raise the importance of biosecurity and hold Labour to account, especially as we face other outbreaks, like Avian Influenza and Bluetongue. Labour must do even more, to avoid letting our farmers and consumers down".
To see Dr Hudson's previous work on this issue, please see the following links below:
Dr Hudson’s response to the National Audit Office’s recent report: https://www.neilhudson.org.uk/news/shadow-defra-minister-dr-neil-hudson-sounds-alarm-government-asleep-job-biosecurity
Dr Hudson’s visit to the APHA Headquarters: https://www.neilhudson.org.uk/news/veterinary-mp-dr-neil-hudson-leads-parliamentary-delegation-uk-biosecurity-hub
Dr Hudson’s October article in the Daily Express: https://www.neilhudson.org.uk/news/dr-neil-hudson-writes-daily-express-urging-chancellor-properly-fund-uks-biosecurity-ahead
Dr Hudson’s previous Parliamentary interventions:
