Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 3
3
Accepted
The Weybridge site is continually vulnerable to a major breakdown which would severely impact the...
Recommendation
The Weybridge site is continually vulnerable to a major breakdown which would severely impact the APHA’s operations including responding to disease outbreaks. The Department and the APHA rate the risk of a major breakdown of facilities at the Weybridge site as high. The potential risk was illustrated by a 2014 generator failure which led to a loss of power to some of the high containment buildings. The APHA does have contingency plans in place, but a major breakdown could result in it taking longer to do surveillance testing during a disease outbreak. It would also need to prioritise disease outbreaks over other work such as its important research programme. The Weybridge site has over 1,000 ‘single points of failure’ that would cause a major disruption to operations. With the Weybridge redevelopment programme not due to be completed until 2036, the Department is looking to manage the risk of breakdown in the shorter-term through: a critical works ‘patch and repair’ programme; increasing its staff resources to manage the site; and putting in place a more appropriate facilities management contract. Recommendation: As a matter of urgency, the Department and the APHA need to stress test their contingency plans for a major breakdown at the Weybridge site and how they would cope with a significant animal disease outbreak which coincided with a major breakdown. In its Treasury Minute response, the Department should provide assurance about the strength of its contingency plans.
Government Response Summary
The government agreed and will stress test their contingency plans and are regularly reviewing plans and running critical incident exercises, and is also in conversation with other cross government laboratories and partners.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. to mitigate and minimise the risk inherent in the aging facilities. These plans are regularly reviewed and will be next reviewed once the Weybridge Development Control Plan (WDCP) is finalised in early 2023. In addition to business continuity planning, the agency and department run regular critical incident exercises to test business response and readiness for a wide variety of scenarios from fire through power and water supply interruptions and potential loss of facilities. The agency is in the process of developing a more detailed understanding of the vulnerabilities at Weybridge site (as distinct from facility condition). This work will identify if and how capabilities can be delivered from alternate locations or facilities. The Weybridge facility and the science that takes place there – and across the country – acts as a strong mitigating factor that controls and reduces the threat to the public and the environment. The government is already in conversation with other cross government laboratories and partners to identify opportunities to co-ordinate, utilise or support each other in the face of UK wide critical events, multiple events such as coincident animal disease outbreaks, cascade events, new and exotic zoonotic threats and pandemics and so on. The agency also partners to undertake cross-government animal, zoonotic and public health emergency exercises every six months, the next of which is planned in 2023.