16 Nov 2022
Ministers have been urged to “get a grip” after a new report found Defra had “comprehensively failed” in its management of the site.
Allister Webb
Job TitleA new report has warned the APHA’s Weybridge headquarters is at risk of “a major breakdown” following years of poor management and underinvestment.
The House of Commons’ Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said Defra had “comprehensively failed” on the issue and the Government as a whole is not sufficiently prioritising the threat posed by zoonotic diseases.
The department insists the site has already been allocated “significant” funding, despite half of its current estimated costs being unaccounted for.
But the committee’s chairperson Dame Meg Hillier said there had been a “shocking” decline of UK capacity in the area since the foot-and-mouth crisis of 2001.
She added: “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.”
The warning comes after senior officials admitted at a committee hearing in July that research work at Weybridge had been put on hold to prioritise responding to the ongoing avian flu outbreak.
The report also highlighted a previous review that found more than 1,000 “single points of failure where loss of the system or asset will cause major catastrophic disruption to operations”.
The committee’s findings follow the publication of a new study in the Lancet Planetary Health journal, which called for more work to develop controls against several infectious disease, including bTB, avian flu, foot-and-mouth disease, and African swine fever.
One of the study’s authors Johannes Charlier also described the estimated £2.8 billion cost of upgrading Weybridge as “peanuts” compared to its benefits.
The PAC report said the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak had cost the economy more than £8 billion at the time – the equivalent of at least £12.3 billion at 2020-21 prices.
But the committee said there remained “significant uncertainty” over Defra’s cost estimate as it demanded an update on its funding by next summer and a more general progress report within six months.
A Defra spokesperson said: “We are proud of Weybridge’s long-standing reputation for excellence in the field of biosecurity and the work it does to protect the UK from animal diseases.
“Significant funding and work is already underway to upgrade its laboratories and ensure we are protected from these diseases into the future.
“Its world-leading scientists, and our field teams are playing a vital role in responding rapidly and decisively to the threats from animal diseases, including the current avian influenza outbreak, which is the largest on record.”
