This week Shadow Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Minister Dr Neil Hudson MP again urged the Government to fund critical biosecurity infrastructure, a rebuild of the Animal Plant and Health Agency Headquarters in Weybridge, during Oral Parliamentary questions to DEFRA Ministers.
A £2.8billion redevelopment of the Animal Plant and Health Agency (APHA) Headquarters was identified for the site to be operational long term and fit to protect the UK from emerging biosecurity threats. £1.2billion starting the project was funded by the previous Conservative Government, but since election to office, the Labour Government have committed only a fraction of the remaining £1.6billion required.
This has become all the more urgent following recent news of a human case of Avian Influenza being identified in England and avian cases surging. This is on top of the very real risks posed by the recent outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease in Germany, in response to which Dr Hudson also called for the full funding for the APHA Headquarters during an Urgent Question to the Government.
Full funding for the rebuild has long been championed by Dr Neil Hudson MP, calling on the Chancellor to provide the funding in her Autumn Statement in an article he wrote for the Daily Express, calling on Ministers to provide this funding throughout his time as an MP, and even leading a visit to the APHA HQ as part of the previous Parliament’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee.
This is all of a personal nature for Dr Hudson, who was moved to enter politics after his experiences in the Foot and Mouth Disease Outbreak of 2001 as a veterinary surgeon supervising some of the animal culls, vowing to act so that the devastation to farming, animal health, and human mental health does not happen again.
In the Commons Chamber, Dr Hudson asked:
“To have growth in agriculture we need healthy animals, and for that, farms need biosecurity. Crucial to that is the Animal and Plant Health Agency, which deserves our thanks in these challenging times. With the alarming recent foot and mouth outbreak in Germany, avian influenza again surging, bluetongue still with us and African swine fever at our doorstep, we must act urgently. Please can the Government release the further necessary £1.4 billion to redevelop the APHA headquarters in Weybridge? The programme was started under the Conservatives, with £1.2 billion committed in 2020. For the sake of agriculture, animal health, rural mental health, biosecurity and national security, please will the Minister act now?”
Following the session, Dr Hudson commented:
“Biosecurity is national security. That is not just a slogan, but a reality. The APHA Headquarters in Weybridge must be fully funded for the urgent rebuild it so desperately needs. If we don’t, I do not want to imagine the real danger the UK will be in amongst the threats to our animal health and farming, including Avian Influenza, Foot and Mouth Disease, Bluetongue Virus and African Swine Fever.”
“If such threats are not thwarted, our farming sector and food security are at risk.”
“The Government has a duty to do the right thing and complete what the Conservatives started and fund the APHA rebuild in full.”
Please see the following for Dr Hudson’s some of previous work on this issue:
https://www.neilhudson.org.uk/news/dr-neil-hudson-mp-triggers-urgent-qu…
https://www.neilhudson.org.uk/news/dr-neil-hudson-writes-daily-express-…
https://www.neilhudson.org.uk/news/dr-neil-hudson-mp-urges-government-p…
https://www.neilhudson.org.uk/news/dr-neil-hudson-mp-calls-labour-gover…
