52nd Report - Resilience to threats from animal disease

Not enough is being done to tackle the high level of vet vacancies within APHA, which limits its ability to respond to an outbreak. APHA struggles to recruit and retain sufficient vets. APHA’s vet vacancy rate fluctuates– it was 20% in April 2025, but it had fallen to 15% in September 2025. The reasons for difficulties recruiting and retaining government vets are not unique to APHA, or the UK. Major factors include: mental health issues relating to activities such as culling animals; pay and conditions; and 2 working hours. APHA has introduced several strategies to improve the situation such as specialist pay provisions and mental health support, but recognises it needs to do more to attract and retain vets. The Department is considering updating the Veterinary Surgeons Act to enable other professionals, such as trained veterinary nurses, to undertake work under vet supervision. recommendation APHA should in the next year produce a veterinary workforce strategy to address vet vacancies. This should set out its understanding of the underlying issues, and how it will make most effective use of tools/ solutions including: using other technical staff; learning from previous schemes; and how other countries are approaching this issue.

APHA’s surveillance activities to detect disease outbreaks early are not sufficiently comprehensive or risk-based. Surveillance work, or ‘eyes and ears on the ground’, is vital to help detect new and re-emerging disease threats quickly and stop their spread. But APHA’s focus on responding to current outbreaks has resulted in a reduction in some of its surveillance activities. The Department is also concerned about the capacity of local authority trading standards officers to undertake routine surveillance work. APHA is starting the process of making its surveillance work more risk- based, efficient and supported by appropriate management information, but this will take several years. Following EU exit, the UK lost access to the EU’s animal diseases intelligence system which provided almost real-time intelligence on animal diseases within the EU. This has resulted in the UK getting information more slowly and in less detail. recommendation To ensure its surveillance activities provide the maximum benefits from the resources available, APHA should set out in the next six months a clear plan and milestones for delivering the updates to its surveillance processes that are needed to ensure they are risk-based, efficient and supported by good management information.

APHA has not made fast enough progress with modernising its systems and processes, to allow it to better deploy its resources. Many of APHA’s systems and processes are outdated and inefficient. For example, its vets in the field must complete paper-based forms, which are scanned and manually deciphered before being added to a database. This results in slower response and more risk of errors. Vital modernisation has been delayed by APHA’s focus on responding to recent outbreaks. The Department has confirmed funding of £62.8 million over the period to 2029–30 for APHA to undertake a modernisation programme. 3 However, APHA will still not be fully paperless by the end of this period. By comparison, APHA’s bee and plant inspectors are now using digital technology, with it reporting efficiencies of about 30% as a result. recommendation APHA should ensure that modernising its systems and processes for animal diseases is a key strategic objective. This needs to be supported by a clear delivery plan and milestones for when new services will be phased in and when the transformation will be completed.

The Department has secured vital funding for the National Biosecurity Centre at Weybridge, but must manage significant interim risks until the redevelopment is completed in 10 years. The Weybridge facility is a critical national asset for managing threats from animal diseases but is in poor condition with ageing buildings that need major repair and replacement. The government committed £1 billion over the spending review period 2025–26 to 2029–30 to continue the redevelopment of Weybridge. The overall redevelopment programme will be completed in 2034–35 at a total estimated cost of £2.8 billion. APHA has contingency plans to ensure operations are maintained over the 10 years until the redevelopment is completed. It also has the use of its regional laboratories and other laboratories such as the Pirbright Institute. However, APHA acknowledges that managing this process will become more difficult as the Weybridge facility continues to age. Any major failure at Weybridge could mean that APHA is unable to deliver its emergency response during an animal disease outbreak. recommendation Given the strategic importance of the National Biosecurity Centre redevelopment at Weybridge, the Department should publish a 10-year plan against which it should provide the Committee with an annual update on its progress. This should include how interim risks are being managed and mitigated, and any key risks to delivering the redevelopment programme on time and budget.

The Department’s progress delivering a multi-species livestock tracing system has been extremely slow and may not provide an integrated system for the UK. Tracing animal movements quickly—to understand where disease may have spread—is key in responding effectively to contain an outbreak. Current UK animal tracing is fragmented, with different systems for different species, and relies on very old and fragile systems. The Department first started work to create a digital, multi-species, UK-wide tracing system in 2013. The original concept of using an off-the-shelf solution for a single species and adapting that 4 for multiple species was flawed, and the plans needed to be reset. Despite spending £181 million from 2019 to March 2025, the Department does not expect to have an integrated system completed until winter 2027. Animal diseases do not respect national borders, but the Department could not confirm to us if its new system would be fully integrated across the devolved administrations. recommendation The Department should ensure that progress against its revised timetable is maintained, and that its approach to developing its multi- species livestock tracing system is fully aligned across all devolved administrations.

Controls at the border to prevent a new disease arriving in the UK via illegal meat imports are insufficient to the level of risk. Dover Port Health Authority (DPHA) reported a fifty-five-fold increase in the seizures of illegal meat imports from January 2023 to January 2025. The Department is not clear whether this is due to an increase in actual imports, or better surveillance and enforcement activities. The Department provides DPHA with some funding to complete proactive illegal meat checks, but this only allows DPHA to undertake this work for 20% of the time. Future funding allocations are subject to the Department’s upcoming business planning processes. The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has also raised several concerns about the increase in illegal meat imports. recommendation The Department should: a. undertake research to understand the reasons for the apparent increase in illegal meat imports to the UK to inform future policy and funding decisions; and b. when determining the resources made available to DPHA and Border Force at Dover to tackle illegal meat imports, weigh this against the significant costs a major disease outbreak could have if introduced through the port of Dover. c. The Department should set out what more can be done to educate travellers not to bring illegal food products into the UK and that high fines are imposed on those that do.

The Department does not have a strategy to tackle shortages in animal vaccines. Vaccines play an important role in preventative health and disease control programmes in animals, including managing antimicrobial resistance. However, there have increasingly been 5 supply shortages of animal vaccines in the past two years, affected by global market issues and limited incentives for the private sector. We are concerned about the lack of a UK strategy to address these problems and ensure vaccines are available. In September 2025, the Veterinary Medicines Directorate published a Statement of Intent on UK Veterinary Vaccine Availability. We are also concerned about the future efficacy of policy changes for managing Bovine TB. The badger cull, which we understand seems to have been effective in reducing Bovine TB, has been largely terminated. Yet, a new cattle vaccine seems to be years away. This hiatus leaves farmers in a very difficult position with the prospect of TB reactors becoming worse again. recommendation Building on the Veterinary Medicines Directorate’s Statement of Intent, the Department should, working with the Veterinary Medicines Directorate and other stakeholders, develop over the next year a long- term strategy and plan for securing adequate animal vaccine supply to the UK.

The Department does not have an overarching long-term strategy for strengthening resilience to the increasing risk from animal diseases. The Department has several strategic programmes underway to strengthen resilience to animal diseases, including the redevelopment of the National Biosecurity Centre and developing an integrated animal tracing system. However, there is no overarching strategy and plan which brings this work together in a comprehensive and integrated way. The Department plans to develop such a strategy over the next 18 months. recommendation The Department should provide the Committee with an update in 18 months’ time on its progress in developing a long-term strategy for animal diseases. The strategy should be sufficiently comprehensive and reflect interdependencies with the other areas of the Department’s work, such as on plant health and honeybees. 6 1 Preparedness for a major animal disease outbreak Introduction

On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), we took evidence from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (the Department) and the Animal & Plant Health Agency (APHA) on the resilience to threats from animal diseases.1

The government is planning to test its preparedness to respond to outbreaks with two major exercises during 2025. Exercise Pegasus, which is a whole-of-government exercise led by the Department of Health and Social Care alongside the Cabinet Office, will take place this autumn to test preparedness for a pandemic of a zoonotic disease (one that can transfer from animals to humans). The Department confirmed it will publish a post-Exercise report. This will be followed by Exercise Aspen, which will specifically test preparedness for a foot and mouth disease outbreak.12 7 Qq 19-21 8 Q 1 9 Qq 1, 22 10 Cabinet Office, Local resilience forums: contact details 11 Q 25 12 Qq 4, 25; Letter from Defra to Committee, 18 September 2025 9 Vet vacancies

In 2023–24, APHA’s peak vacancy rate for vets was 24% (108 full-time equivalent staff) which had fallen to 20% (99 full-time equivalent staff) in April 2025.13 In correspondence received after the evidence session the Department stated that it has a target of approximately 470 full-time equivalent vet roles within APHA with a current vacancy rate of around 15% (9% excluding jobs under offer).14

APHA explained that difficulties in recruiting and retaining government vets are not unique to APHA or the UK. Key factors include: mental health issues relating to activities such as culling animals; pay and conditions; and working hours. APHA set out a number of strategies it has put in place to improve recruitment and retention of vets, including using its specialist pay provision to increase the pay of vets and introducing mental health and wellbeing support for its vets in the field. APHA recognised it needs to do more and has recently completed a national listening exercise with its staff, including vets, on understanding health, safety, mental wellbeing and what more it can do to support staff. The Department highlighted that The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and the British Veterinary Association are doing work on recruitment and retention, and APHA said that, for vets in general, 44% leave the profession in the first four years of their service post-qualification.15

The Department set out the work it is looking to do, with support from the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, to update the Veterinary Surgeons Act which has not been updated for a long time. Reforming the Act could allow other professionals, such as trained veterinary nurses, to do the same range of work as a vet under the supervision of a vet.16 Surveillance activities

Surveillance work, or ‘eyes and ears on the ground’, is vital to help detect new and re-emerging disease threats quickly and stop their spread. The Department’s and APHA’s approach to managing disease outbreaks is through a ‘surge capacity’ resourcing model, where staff switch priority from business-as-usual activities to outbreak response. Responding to recent outbreaks has meant reduced capacity to undertake important 13 C&AG’s Report, para 3.7 14 Q 9; Letter from Defra to Committee, 18 September 2025 15 Qq 6-8 16 Qq 8, 13 10 work such as disease surveillance activities. In 2022–23, APHA missed its corporate key performance targets for visiting animal markets and inspecting animal by-products.17

APHA pointed out that its current surveillance activities are not risk-based or efficient, which results in APHA returning to a location on a regular basis even though it finds no issues. APHA is starting work to move to a more risk- based, intelligence-led surveillance regime and to design its management information to support this. APHA stated that this is not a quick fix and that it will take several years to complete the work.18

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

The Department explained that following EU exit, the UK lost access to the EU’s Animal Diseases Information System which provided almost real-time intelligence on EU animal diseases. While the UK has access to an international intelligence system provided by the World Organisation for Animal Health, information is received in slower time and less detail compared to the EU system. The Department stated that it was still able to react quickly to the case of foot and mouth disease in Germany based in informal intelligence.21 APHA’s systems and processes

APHA acknowledged that its systems and processes are outdated and require modernisation. For example, its vets in the field must complete paper-based forms, which are scanned and manually deciphered before being added to a database. APHA also cited the example of having 36 different email addresses through which people can contact APHA. This causes inefficiency, slower responses and increases the risk of error. APHA said that work to modernise its systems had been delayed by the need to prioritise resources to respond to recent animal disease outbreaks. 17 C&AG’s Report, paras 22, 2.8-2.9 18 Qq 35-36 19 Qq 37-38 20 C&AG’s report, para 2.10 21 Qq 40-42; C&AG’s report, para 1.5 11 APHA stated that a key challenge it faces will be to ensure that, regardless of outbreaks, it ringfences people and resources to ensure its systems and processes are modernised.22

APHA has established its Delivering Sustainable Futures programme as the main programme to modernise its systems and has initially started on smaller projects relating to plant health and bees. Its plant and bee inspectors in the field now have digital technology which allows them to report in real-time. APHA said that this has resulted in efficiencies of around 30%. APHA is aiming to roll this technology out to its animal inspectors in 2026. The Department confirmed funding of £62.8 million over the period to 2029–30 to support APHA’s modernisation programme. APHA stated that it would not be fully paperless in five years’ time as the programme had to cover a wide range of its systems, and that it needed to undertake a fundamental assessment of the information it is collecting and redesign its systems to support these requirements.23 22 Qq 14-15 23 Qq 14-18 12 2 Strengthening long-term resilience to animal diseases National Biosecurity Centre at Weybridge

The National Biosecurity Centre at Weybridge is the UK’s primary science laboratory capability for managing threats from animal diseases. It contains 98% of APHA’s high-containment laboratories. The site is in poor condition, with ageing buildings that need major repair and replacement.24 While acknowledging the critical importance of Weybridge, the Department highlighted that it does have other laboratory capacity to draw on such as the Pirbright Institute and APHA’s regional laboratories.25 However, any major failure at Weybridge could have potentially significant impacts on the UK. For example, APHA may not be able to deliver its emergency response during an animal disease outbreak.26

In 2017, the Department started a programme to redevelop Weybridge. In the 2025 Spending Review, the government committed £1 billion over the period 2025–26 to 2029–30 to continue the redevelopment, with a total estimated cost of £2.8 billion.27 In correspondence received after our evidence session, the Department stated that the overall redevelopment programme will be completed in 2034–35, with interim laboratory facilities completed in 2027 and 2028 to allow operations to continue while the new National Biosecurity Centre is built.28 The Department said that managing the risk of failure during the interim 10-year period was a very high priority. APHA explained that it has contingency plans in place to deal with any outages at the site and also to enable it to move activities around as the redevelopment continues. However, APHA acknowledged that managing this process will become increasingly difficult as the facilities at Weybridge continue to age and it could not guarantee that operations would remain at Weybridge for the entirety of the 10-year period.29 24 C&AG’s Report, paras 17, 3.10 25 Q 26 26 C&AG’s Report, para 3.10 27 Q 28; C&AG’s report, para 17 28 Letter from Defra to Committee, 18 September 2025 29 Qq 26, 28-30 13 Livestock tracing

Livestock movements in England are significant. For example, there are around 20 million movements of sheep to or from different farms, livestock markets, collection centres, and to abattoirs each year. These movements increase the risk of spreading disease. Being able to trace animal movements quickly is therefore key in responding quickly and effectively to contain an outbreak.30 The Department set out that the current UK animal tracing is fragmented, with different systems for different species, and relies on very old and fragile systems.31

The Department first started work to create a digital, multi-species, UK-wide tracing system in 2013 and acknowledged that it has been working on this for a long time. It explained that the original concept of using an off- the-shelf solution for a single species and adapting that for multiple species was not technically possible, and this required a significant reset of the programme around four or five years ago.32

Between 2019 and March 2025, the Department has spent £181 million on the programme and some services have been developed including a new sheep, goat and deer tracing service.33 However, the Department does not expect to have a fully integrated system in place until winter 2027. It set out that further work is required on the sheep, goat and deer service to transfer it to the multi-species system. The cattle service will be added in 2026 and it expects the pig service to be added by winter 2027. Funding for this work is only confirmed to summer 2026 with a further business case required for funding beyond this.34

Animal diseases do not respect national borders, but the Department confirmed that implementing animal tracing systems is a devolved matter. The Department explained that its livestock tracing programme director meets regularly with the devolved administrations. However, it also highlighted that different decisions are being made. For example, Scotland had made a different choice of ear tag which is an important element of cattle tracing systems, and transition timetables are not aligned across the devolved administrations. The Department could not confirm to us if its new system would be fully integrated across the devolved administrations.35 30 C&AG’s report, para 3.14 31 Qq 43-44 32 Q 43; C&AG’s report, para 3.15 33 C&AG’s report, para 3.16 34 Qq 43-45; 35 Qq 46-48 14 Illegal meat imports

Illegally imported meat and animal products, which have not gone through checks to confirm they are disease-free and conform to UK health standards, pose a significant and growing threat for introducing new animal diseases, such as African swine fever. Dover Port Health Authority (DPHA) seized 22 tonnes of illegal meat in January 2025 compared with 0.4 tonnes in January 2023, a fifty-five-fold increase.36 The Department told us that it was not sure whether this is due to an increase in actual imports, or better surveillance and enforcement activities, but it was concerned by the increase.37

Port Health Authorities and Border Force are responsible for seizing illegal meat and animal product imports at ports.38 The Department praised DPHA and Border Force for their work at Dover and confirmed that it has provided £9 million of funding to DPHA to support work on illegal meat imports.39 However, DPHA’s funding has only allowed it to undertake proactive illegal meat checks for 20% of the time, with the volume of meat being seized coming from less than 0.2% of inbound vehicles.40 The Department stated that future funding for this work was subject to its internal business planning which is usually undertaken in the autumn with funding confirmed in January of each year.41

The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee’s recent report on illegal meat imports also raised serious concerns about the threat from illegally imported meat. It highlighted that the authorities tasked with tackling illegal meat imports do not have the necessary leadership, resources and intelligence to do so effectively.42 We believe that the Department could do more to educate travellers not to bring in illegal food products into the UK and that high fines will result for those who break the rules. Animal vaccines

Vaccines play an important role in preventative health and disease control programmes in animals, reducing disease incidence, and maintaining health and welfare. They also reduce the need for antibiotics, helping 36 C&AG’s report, para 4.13 37 Q 51 38 C&AG’s report, para 4.13 39 Q 51 40 C&AG’s report, para 4.13 41 Q 54 42 Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Biosecurity at the border: Britain’s illegal meat crisis, HC 1296, 8 September 2025 15 combat antimicrobial resistance in animals. Limited availability of animal vaccines is a growing global issue which has become more acute in the last two years. Long-term issues include: production capacity at UK and EU sites; production capacity being diverted to human health; increased demand; and the challenging economics of vaccine manufacture.43 We received a number of written submissions which highlighted the importance of vaccines as part of improving resilience to animal diseases and raised concerns over supply shortages and the lack of a coordinated vaccine strategy.44

In September 2025, the Veterinary Medicines Directorate published a Statement of Intent on UK Veterinary Vaccine Availability. This sets out a framework for future cross-sector action to address the mismatch between supply and demand for existing veterinary vaccines and facilitate the pipeline of innovative products to address existing and emerging therapeutic gaps.45 The Pirbright Institute highlighted the important work of The Centre for Veterinary Vaccine Innovation and Manufacturing. The Centre will support the development and deployment of vaccine technologies to combat neglected and emerging diseases of livestock, including zoonotic diseases that represent a threat to public health.46

We are concerned about the future efficacy of policy changes for managing Bovine TB. The badger cull, which we understand seems to have been effective in reducing Bovine TB, has been largely terminated.47 Yet, a new cattle vaccine seems to be years away.48 This hiatus leaves farmers in a very difficult position with the prospect of TB reactors becoming worse again. Long-term strategy

The Department said it is undertaking a range of strategic capability building work that will improve long-term resilience, including redeveloping the National Biosecurity Centre at Weybridge, developing a multi-species livestock tracing system, and modernising APHA’s systems and processes. The Department recognised that there is no long-term strategy that brings all its work together in a comprehensive way and confirmed that it will be working on this over the next 18 months. The Department also explained 43 C&AG’s report, paras 4.8-4.9 44 Dr Alexander Waller (TAD0001); The Pirbright Institute (TAD0008); Royal Society of Biology (TAD0009); Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) (TAD0012); British Veterinary Association (TAD0013), NFU (TAD0015) 45 Veterinary Medicines Directorate, Statement of Intent: UK Veterinary Vaccine Availability, 11 September 2025 46 The Pirbright Institute (TAD0008) 47 Letter from Defra to Committee, 18 September 2025 48 Letter from Defra to Committee, 18 September 2025 16 that this will form part of a larger piece of work led by the Cabinet Office to strengthen the UK’s resilience to a range of biosecurity threats across human, animal and plant health.49 49 Qq 59-60 17