Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 16
52nd Report - Resilience to threats from animal disease
Published 5 Nov 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Resilience to threats from animal disease All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The Department set out concerns it has about the capacity of local authority trading standards officers to undertake routine surveillance activities. While local authorities have stepped up to provide extra resources during recent outbreaks, capacity to undertake business-as-usual activities such as visiting livestock markets has reduced over the last 15 years.19 Work on animal diseases is competing with other local authority priorities and statutory responsibilities where there is limited capacity and financial resource.20
From: Public Accounts Committee, 52nd Report - Resilience to threats from animal disease (HC 885), 5 November 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fifty-second Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 5 January 2026).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fifth-second report from Session 2024-26
Published 19 January 2026.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it agrees with the Committee's recommendations it addresses, giving target implementation dates between February 2026 and Summer 2027.
- On preparedness, the department and APHA, working with the Welsh and Scottish Governments, "will review and update as required" disease control strategies for four higher-risk diseases by March 2027, and review all strategies on a rolling three year cycle.
- On vet vacancies, the department is establishing a government veterinary services working group to create a workforce strategy, and "will consult" on reform of the Veterinary Surgeon's Act.
- On APHA modernisation, milestones run from spring 2026 to autumn 2026, but progress "is dependent on future funding arrangements, and additional funding may be required".
- On illegal meat imports, the department is "actively considering increases to the funding" for Dover Port Health Authority, and says funding decisions will take account of preventing the costs of major disease outbreaks.