House of Commons - Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Sixteenth Report

3 STATE VETERINARY SERVICE

58. The State Veterinary Service (SVS) is a Great Britain-wide organisation in the Operations and Service Delivery Directorate of Defra.[140] Its role is set out in the box below. In the past the Chief Veterinary Officer was responsible for the State Veterinary Service[141] but he is now "responsible for the policy side of veterinary issues within this country", and the Director of the SVS "is responsible for the delivery side in relation to the operations of the SVS".[142]

Role of the State Veterinary Service[143]

To assist Defra and other Government Departments in achieving their aims in the field of animal health, public health, animal welfare and international trade by:

providing timely, up-to-date and objective veterinary advice to Government on all relevant matters, relating to animal health, public health, animal welfare and international policies;
implementing agreed policies efficiently, effectively and in conformity with legislation;
monitoring the implementation of policies and providing reliable and timely feedback on their effectiveness or otherwise, to inform the policy process;
providing advice, guidance and training to the veterinary profession on matters relating to State veterinary medicine.

59. Across Great Britain, the SVS is divided into five regions Scotland, Wales, and, within England, North, West and East Regions. There are five regional offices and 24 Animal Health Divisional Offices, each of the latter is headed by a Divisional Veterinary Manager. In addition to the current complement of 234 field veterinary officers,[144] the SVS is assisted by Local Veterinary Inspectors and Temporary Veterinary Inspectors.[145] Defra told us that there are approximately 7,000 LVIs.[146]

60. The SVS came in for a good deal of criticism following the foot and mouth disease outbreak of 2001. In his lessons to be learned inquiry, Dr Anderson identified a number of issues. He highlighted the difficulty of recruiting to the SVS, especially in the South East, and advocated relocating as many of its functions as possible to regional centres.[147] He called for a "reappraisal of Local Veterinary Inspectors' roles and conditions".[148] He told us, when we discussed his report with him, that "the SVS is, and in many ways rightly, very proud but rather an isolated organisation" and that the silo culture he identified as a problem within Government was also a problem within the then-Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF).[149] The Royal Society expressed concern "about the attractiveness of the State Veterinary Service as a career" and about the opportunities for continuing professional development within the SVS.[150] It is worrying that the numbers of SVS vets remains lower today than was the case at the start of the foot and mouth disease outbreak.

Local Veterinary Inspectors

61. In oral evidence the importance of the SVS's links with private veterinary practice in achieving its objectives was highlighted by the NFU[151] and vets. The RCVS pointed out that the extent to which the SVS is dependent on private practitioners to carry out state functions would affect its ability to respond to existing and new tasks.[152] The BVA noted that "any reduction in the number of LVIs available to assist the State Veterinary Service veterinarians will impact upon the workload of the State Veterinary Service".[153] In line with concerns about the 'shortage' of large animal vets, the BCVA expressed worry that the pool from which such vets came was getting smaller.[154] Defra acknowledged this point, but the Director of the SVS pointed out that "although the number of practices might be reducing we were not having difficulty in getting the LVI services delivered, except in one or two areas".[155]

62. Defra told us that it is "currently undertaking a review of our relationship with LVIs which centres on the nature of the contract, the system of communication/instruction and training programmes. The object of the exercise is not to reduce the amount of money paid to LVI practices but to improve the efficiency within which the system works".[156] The Director of the SVS, Mr Atkinson, explained that although the LVI system had worked well it needed "revising and modernising and bringing into line with the modern employment of traditional practice".[157] He said that Defra and the BVA were "working closely together to try to devise a modern, contractual arrangement which will maintain all the good things that we all recognise about the relationship but get rid of some of the anomalies and give us a sound basis for placing work in the private sector as the strategies develop".[158]

63. The BVA stressed the need for a "partnership between the state, the private practitioner and … the farming community".[159] We have highlighted that need throughout our report. It is clear that much of the statutory veterinary work in the country is undertaken by private practitioners acting on Defra's behalf in the capacity of an LVI. It would be foolhardy of Defra to jeopardise that relationship. We therefore recommend that Defra not only use the review to revise relationships with LVIs but also to discuss what lessons can be learned in its relations with those private vets who do not undertake LVI work but who are likely to be involved in the delivery of the animal health and welfare and surveillance strategies.

Organisation and staffing

64. Dr Anderson's concerns about the difficulty of recruiting to the SVS appear, at least temporarily, to have been overcome. Both the RCVS and the BVA, as well as Defra, noted that foot and mouth disease had publicised the role of the SVS and had stimulated a lot of interest in the SVS's recent recruitment exercises, leading to the appointment of "some really high quality people".[160]

65. However, the NFU believed that "the SVS is understaffed for the routine tasks it has to perform".[161] But Mr Atkinson told us that getting more vets was not the "right answer". He said that as well as its vets, the SVS had another thousand staff - "technical assistants, administrative people and actually lots of constraints are on that level of staff, not necessarily on the veterinary side".[162]

66. The State Veterinary Service has a key role to play in delivering the animal health and welfare and veterinary surveillance strategies. Not only must it bring forward appropriate policies, it also has to improve its links with private sector vets to ensure that all those who play a part in improving the animal health and welfare of the nation are equipped to do so. Once the LVI review is over, Defra should assess the staffing requirements of the State Veterinary Service. The assessment should consider the implications of the animal health and welfare and surveillance strategies on current working practices and the demands on the service of a future large-scale animal disease outbreak, as well as taking into account the needs of the revised contracts with LVIs.

140 Ev 47, Annex A, para 2. Back

141 Defra, Animal health 2001: the report of the Chief Veterinary Officer, Appendix E. Back

142 Q 146. Back

143 Defra, Animal health 2002: the report of the Chief Veterinary Officer, Appendix E. Back

144 Q 158. Back

145 Ev 47, Annex A, para 4. Back

146 Ev 47, Annex A, para 8. Back

147 Foot and mouth disease 2001: Lessons to be Learned Inquiry, HC (2001-02) 888, pp. 160-161. Back

148 Ibid, p. 28. Back

149 Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, foot and Mouth Disease 2001: Lessons to be Learned Inquiry, Minutes of Evidence, HC (2001-02) 1144, Qq 95-96. Back

150 Infectious diseases in livestock, paras 10.35 and 10.37. Back

151 Q 63. Back