How long can Government keep ignoring this risk? NPA response to NAO report

A thorough report by the National Audit Office warning that Defra and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) are insufficiently prepared for a major animal disease outbreak is deeply concerning and should prompt a re-think within government, according to the NPA.

The report is published amid growing concern about the UK’s border controls, as potentially devastating diseases African swine fever and foot-and-mouth disease circulate in Europe, and highlights flaws in APHA’s contingency planning for a disease outbreak.

It acknowledges that Defra and APHA have worked hard to manage recent medium-severity outbreaks, but finds a range of challenges leading to them being insufficiently prepared for a more severe outbreak. These include:

• Significant gaps in government contingency plans.
• Outdated and inefficient operational processes within APHA.
• Out of date infrastructure, particularly relating to the government’s animal science facility at Weybridge. Defra’s programme to redevelop Weybridge is now on track but will not be completed for another 10 years.
• No comprehensive livestock movement tracing system, despite attempts to establish one beginning in 2013.
• Capacity and skills shortages – for example, APHA’s vet vacancy rate in April 2025 was 20%.
• Biosecurity threats.

The NAO said climate change and antimicrobial resistance mean disease outbreaks are increasingly frequent and livestock more vulnerable, but said government lacks a strategy and action plan for improving resilience to animal diseases.

Past animal disease outbreaks have had significant economic impacts. For example, the 2001 FMD outbreak cost the public and private sectors an estimated £13.8 billion (in 2023-24 prices), while recent outbreaks of highly pathogenic bird flu have resulted in 7.2 million birds being culled between November 2020 and mid-March 2025.

Biosecurity

Defra and APHA have introduced initiatives to strengthen resilience, such as the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway, which provides funding to support improvements in animal health on farms, and research and innovation to improve detection and response to disease.

However, progress is being undermined by global issues with supply of animal vaccines and significant threats to biosecurity at the border, it says. Defra’s best estimate for the proportion of live animal imports from the EU and the rest of the world currently undergoing physical checks is 5%, against a government target of 100% at border control posts by the end of 2024.

The report acknowldges that Defra and APHA have a good understanding of new and emerging risks from animal diseases, a core principle of resilience and robust arrangements in place to gather intelligence on animal disease risks through ‘horizon scanning’ and international disease monitoring. APHA also conducts surveillance, testing and inspections of premises to help detect infections early and stop their spread.

But it says responding to increasingly frequent outbreaks has affected Defra’s and APHA’s ability to undertake other important work that would help strengthen resilience in the longer term. Their current approach, where staff switch priority from business-as-usual activities to outbreak response, is unlikely to be fit for purpose if they are in almost constant outbreak mode, it warns.

Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said: “Defra has assessed that the risk of an outbreak to which it would be unable to respond effectively is above the level it considers tolerable, but it has not determined a way to reduce this risk. A long-term strategy and action plan are urgently needed, to protect national economic resilience as well as food security, human health and rural communities.”

NPA REACTION

NPA chief executive Lizzie Wilson said: “This is a thorough and deeply concerning report that reiterates what we already knew about the state of our national biosecurity and capacity to manage disease.

“We have been raising these issues with government and lobbying for change for some time. It is good to now see it formally recognised and it underlines the seriousness of the situation, with foot-and-mouth disease and African swine fever circulating in Europe and huge holes in our border controls.

“The report is clear that APHA are severely under-resourced and we still have major concerns about how the agencies would cope if we were to contract another notifiable disease.

“Our question for Government is how long can they keep ignoring this risk?”

Defra response

Biosecurity Minister Baroness Hayman said: “This Government’s commitment to maintaining the country’s biosecurity in the face of the mounting risks of disease is unwavering – we will do whatever it takes to protect our farmers and economy.

“We took immediate action to ban personal imports of meat and dairy from Europe after a wave of foot and mouth cases on the continent and, after years of underinvestment, we are investing £200 million into a new National Biosecurity Centre.”

Jenny Stewart, APHA chief executive officer said: “Our staff work 24/7 to safeguard animal and plant health from a huge range of pests, and animal and plant diseases of animals and plants – much of this work is world leading with our Weybridge laboratories the international reference library for dozens of different diseases.

“We have successfully delivered disease and pest outbreak response almost continuously over recent years, including managing the largest outbreak of avian influenza this country has ever experienced while managing the spread of bluetongue disease to protect farmers while giving time for vaccination”.

“I would like to thank NAO for their work on this report – we will study the findings in detail so that the UK can remain at the forefront of surveillance, diagnostics, research, and rapid response.”