Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she made of the adequacy of Animal Plant and Health Agency veterinary resources; and if she will make a statement.

APHA has approximately 430 veterinary posts and at the end of May 2023, 60 of these were vacant. Recruitment is underway and locum vets are being used while vacancies are being filled. Because of the nature of APHA work, veterinary resource needs can change rapidly. This was seen during last winter and the large avian influenza outbreak that required a prioritising resource allocation and the temporary expansion of the Agency’s workforce.

APHA has contracts in place to enable it to bring in more veterinary resource from private veterinary practices at times of peak demand and this was heavily used during the outbreak.

APHA also was also able to draw on veterinary resource from core Defra. There are other potential changes to APHA’s responsibilities which will require more veterinary resource. These changes are individually impact assessed to identify resource requirements. One such example is the new Border Operating Model where APHA is likely to need significant extra veterinary resource to check imported live animals. Defra provides APHA with additional funding to expand veterinary resource where needed.