Body name UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)
Place in the wiring diagram: National Body
The body's stated function is to prevent, prepare for, and respond to infectious diseases and environmental hazards, keeping all our communities safe, saving lives, and protecting livelihoods.
The UKHSA also provides scientific and operational leadership, working with local, national and international partners to protect the public’s health and build the nation’s health security capability.
The UKHSA is an executive agency sponsored by the Department of Health and Social Care and is classified as a central government organisation.
The health hazards which UKHSA protects against are:
Infectious diseases (covering the main routes of transmission, which can give rise to epidemics or pandemics, such as gastrointestinal, respiratory, sexual / blood-borne, touch, and vector-borne)
Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear hazards
Other environmental hazards, such as weather events
Health hazards that arise from disasters such as major fires or accidents
In 2022-23, UKHSA took on the relevant responsibilities of the COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force, including the booster campaigns. It also leads several vaccine-preventable programmes, such as polio and leads on covid testing and the New Variant Assessment Platform.
In June 2021, the PM announced a new Centre for Pandemic Preparedness in the UKHSA.
They also say they provide expert guidance and support locally and continue to monitor national health security risks.
It's budget
The wiring diagram reports the UKHSA's budget as £3.4 billion.
However, the annual accounts for 2022-23 report the funding limit set by DHSC for non-ring-fenced funding was £3.8 billion, which included £1.9 billion of COVID-19 funding, £0.8 billion for the COVID Vaccine Unit, and £0.7 billion for Vaccines and Countermeasures Response.
Administration costs were £155 million, and the core activities cost £309.5 million.
Total covid spending was £1.3 billion, with £584 million spent on the vaccine unit.
Relocation costs:
In 2024, the NAO published an investigation into the UKHSA’s health security campus programme.
The existing UKHSA infrastructure at Porton Down (Wiltshire) and Colindale (North London) is nearing the end of its operational life.
The plan is to replace and modernise UKHSA’s facilities. A site was purchased in Harlow in 2017, with an original timeline to see the new site fully operational by 2021. The government is committed to modernisation but has not yet decided on its location. The latest total programme cost estimate is £3.2 billion.
Number of Staff
Full-time staff reduced from 18,000 at the peak of the pandemic to now below 6,700,
Grey areas:
During 2022-23, UKHSA continued support services to Porton Biopharma Ltd, an investment inherited from Public Health England (PHE). The income and expenditure transactions for Porton Biopharma Ltd processed by UKHSA did not form part of the UKHSA accounts.
We have previously reported on the obfuscation that the former MP Philip Davies received when he asked how much external money the UKHSA received and where it came from.
A former minister, Maria Caulfield, answered that the information was commercially sensitive. TTE is unclear how publicly funded bodies handle commercially sensitive information and can so readily keep it from an MP.
In 2023, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) reported the UKHSA had ‘no formal governance and weak financial controls.’
A year later, the PAC reported that UKHSA’s financial controls remain unacceptably weak. This means it remains impossible to establish if taxpayers’ money has been spent to the purposes intended by Parliament.
The PAC reported, ‘UKHSA’s accounts have been unable to be properly audited for two years in a row—a very rare occurrence for a public body—which is deeply concerning.’
Yet, in the annual accounts, the external auditor’s remuneration for the year ending 31 March 2023 was £650,000. Not bad for auditors that don’t audit.
It's unclear why it's called the UKHSA when the devolved governments are responsible for most health protection matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and are not part of the UKHSA’s functions. It surely should be England's Health Security Agency.
The UKHSA has not developed guidance on the physical interventions to stop respiratory virus transmission but has been notable for the acrobatic flip-flops of its Chief Executive at the Hallett Inquiry.
Insufficient resources
The UKHSA mapped available evidence for the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions to reduce transmission of COVID-19 in the UK.
Despite a budget of £3.4 to £3.8 billion and 18,000 staff at the time, they said they could not critically appraise the evidence due to “limited available resources.”
We did. With the support of our subscribers.
Recommendations
We urgently recommend knowing where our money goes and developing an evidence base for UKHSA activities, as is standard for other parts of the health system. The UKHSA should report annually on how it improves patient outcomes and reduces expenditure on low-value activities.
The UKHSA has 365 freedom of information requests on WhatDoTheyKnow, highlighting a lack of transparency. We recommend that UKHSA develop a transparent evidence base of the effects of their activities.
We recommend that all data in the possession of the UKHSA to be made available to tax payers, excluding classified data, but including “commercially sensitive” data. Such as the data on mortality by vaccine exposure which Dame Jenny Harries refused to disclose to Parliament.
Two old geezer taxpayers wrote this post and do need an auditor to look into our miserable accounts. The old geezers cut the list of grey areas as they were running out of space.
Lovely comments folks. If the two old geezers were asked to inspect UKHSA, an impossible occurrence, I would go round every office and ask 2 questions to each of the staff.
1. What’s your job?
2 Show me evidence that your work has benefited UK plc.
Non answers or evasion would result in the member of staff being awarded the Order of Boot ASAP.
Best, Tom.
Science fiction eh?
It’s time for another bonfire of the quangos. We need to take the Javier Milei approach.
https://youtu.be/kUYPNsTpO4Y?si=13ortbTkhvF8cqPV