Recommendation 11

We questioned the Department on why it decided to transfer the CVU to UKHSA in October 2022, pushing additional responsibility on to a new and struggling organisation. The Department stated that, as an organisation of health protection experts who hold responsibility for established vaccination programmes, UKHSA was best placed to host the CVU. The Department told us that it thought that financial and accounting officer responsibilities had to be transferred alongside the operational responsibilities. It explained that it was aware of the systems and control issues at UKHSA that led to the disclaimer but considered that transferring the CVU would prioritise public health protection, leaving UKHSA time to “deal with the other issues” at a later date.17 The timeliness of the Department’s accounts