The PAC's (Public Accounts Committee) response echoes NFU asks about Defra’s preparedness for delivering control measures for exotic diseases and the future efficacy of policy changes for managing bTB.
There are now huge pressures on APHA to rectify under-investment in infrastructure and digitalisation, lack of strategic planning and lack of staff and veterinary resources. These changes must be delivered while still managing ongoing notifiable disease outbreaks. The government must appropriately allocate resources to enable this to happen.
"Farmers need confidence that APHA can respond swiftly and effectively to disease outbreaks and right now, that confidence is lacking."
NFU President Tom Bradshaw
The NFU responded to the PAC's inquiry during July in support of the Committee's recommendations, and warned that England, and the UK as a whole, is highly vulnerable to animal disease incursion with the resilience of structures and systems at an all-time low after years of decline.
NFU President Tom Bradshaw said the NFU had repeatedly warned ministers about the government's lack of resilience to threats from animal disease.
He said: “The government must urgently rebuild APHA’s capacity to respond. Years of under-investment in infrastructure, staff shortages and limited veterinary resources, a lack of strategic planning and a failure to embrace digitisation have all placed huge pressure on APHA. All while the ongoing pressures of managing bluetongue, avian influenza and bTB have further hit staff resource and resilience, leaving little room for long-term planning.”
Key recommendations
The Committee is calling on Defra and APHA to act now to improve preparedness for a major outbreak by:
- leveraging other technical staff
- learning from past initiatives
- adopting successful approaches from other countries.
The report says APHA should develop a strategy within one year to tackle veterinary vacancies and identify root causes and apply solutions. APHA must also publish a six-month plan with milestones to modernise surveillance processes and ensure systems are risk-based, efficient and backed by strong management information. Modernising systems and processes should be a core, strategic goal, MPs said.
Weybridge development
The National Biosecurity Centre at Weybridge was identified as 'critical to the management of threats from animal diseases', with MPs calling for a 10-year plan to be developed, and annual progress updates on this reported back to the Committee. This should include information on how interim risks are being managed, and any key risks that could impact upon delivering the redevelopment programme on time and in budget.
Defra should also ensure that the development of a digital livestock tracing system aligns with the revised timetable of winter 2027. The system should be a multi-species tracing system that is fully coordinated across devolved administrations.
Border controls
MPs gave a stark warning on the issue of illegally imported meat, finding that controls at the border are insufficient, with Dover Port Health Authority only receiving enough funding to allow it to complete proactive illegal meat checks 20% of the time.
The Committee recommends Defra should:
- Research causes of rising illegal meat imports to inform future policy and funding.
- Ensure resource allocation for DPHA and Border Force at Dover reflects the potential cost of a major disease outbreak.
- Educate travellers on the risks of bringing illegal food products and enforce high fines for violations.
Criticising Defra's lack of strategy to tackle shortages in animals vaccines, the PAC recommends a strategy be developed over the next year in collaboration with the Veterinary Medicines Directorate and other stakeholders.
‘Turning point’
Chair of the PAC, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, said the report's findings should “be of the deepest concern to all of us”, adding that “the necessity for a semi-permanent response to these current outbreaks has pulled government away from vital preparations for future threats – which have to be treated as a matter of when, not if”.
The PAC has said Defra should provide an update in 18 months on its progress towards developing a long-term, comprehensive animal disease strategy that reflects interdependencies with other government departments.
NFU President Tom Bradshaw said the Committee's report “must be a turning point”.
“Farmers need confidence that APHA can respond swiftly and effectively to disease outbreaks and right now, that confidence is lacking. Investment in new traceability services, contingency planning and vaccination strategies are all vital to protect British farming.”
The NFU has said the recommendations outlined in the PAC report must be implemented at pace to reduce both the country's and farmers' exposure to exotic disease risks and to restore confidence in APHA’s ability to respond to an exotic disease threat.
Read the report in full at: GOV.UK | Resilience to threats from animal disease.
