The Government is not prioritising the threat of animal diseases which could be devastating to farmers, rural communities and society, MPs warn. Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee has warned the UK’s main animal disease facility, the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s (APHA) site near Weybridge in Surrey, has been “left to deteriorate to an alarming extent”.
That is despite the devastating consequences of diseases, such as foot and mouth disease and the recent avian influenza, for farming communities, while Covid-19 has shown the extent of the impact when an animal-sourced virus jumps the species barrier into humans. Currently, the UK faces threats from on-going diseases including bovine tuberculosis, new potential viruses such as African swine fever and diseases that affect pets such as rabies, a report from the committee said.
APHA’s Weybridge site is the UK’s primary science facility for managing threats from animal disease but the Environment Department (Defra) has “comprehensively failed in its historical management” of the complex. Inadequate management and under-investment at Weybridge has left it vulnerable to a major breakdown, highlighted by a generator failure which led to a loss of power to some of the high containment buildings, which could hamper efforts to deal with an animal disease outbreak, the MPs said.
The committee found the site had “over 1,000 single points of failure that would cause major disruption” to operations. The price-tag for a delayed 15-year redevelopment programme at Weybridge has increased from an estimated £1.2 billion to £2.8 billion, but costs remain uncertain, the Treasury has not yet agreed to fund it in full, and there is a risk it will not have sufficient staff and expertise to deliver it, the report said.
It is not yet certain there will be sufficient investment in developing Weybridge’s capacity to ensure the UK’s long-term resilience to animal diseases, the report warned. With the redevelopment programme not due to be completed until 2036, Defra is looking to manage the risk of breakdown in the shorter-term through a critical works “patch and repair” scheme, increasing staff and putting in a more appropriate facilities management contract.
But the report urged Defra and APHA to stress test their contingency plans for a major breakdown and how they would cope if it coincided with a significant animal disease outbreak “as a matter of urgency”. Defra must make sure the situation at APHA is not repeated with other important infrastructure, and work with the Treasury to ensure more certain funding for the redevelopment programme, the committee urged.
It also needs to make sure it has the right staff capacity to deliver the redevelopment programme – which comes as the Government is asking departments to draw up plans to cut staff numbers. Dame Meg Hillier MP, chairwoman 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, the 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.”
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