Matt Hancock confirms Public Health England axed with Test and Trace boss Baroness Harding to lead replacement body
Matt Hancock defended shaking up the public health system in the middle of the pandemic response (Policy Exchange/YouTube)
5 min read
Matt Hancock has confirmed Public Health England is being scrapped and replaced by a new body to protect the nation's health "now and in the future".
And the Health Secretary revealed Baroness Dido Harding, who currently heads up NHS Test and Trace, will provide interim leadership for the new National Institute for Health Protection (NIHP).
Setting out his plans for a shake-up of the public health system in a speech to the Policy Exchange think tank, Mr Hancock said: "The changes that I am announcing today are designed entirely to strengthen our response."
Defending scrapping PHE, which has been criticised by ministers for its response to Covid-19, while still in the middle of the pandemic, the Health Secretary said: "We are making the change now because we must do everything we can to fulfil our responsibilities to the public, to strengthen public health in the UK.”
But Labour accused the Government of a "desperate attempt to shift the blame after years of cutting public health budgets".
Announcing the formation of the NIHP, Mr Hancock said: "To give ourselves the best chance of beating this virus and spotting and tackling other external health threats now and in the future, we need to bring together the science and the skill into one coherent whole.
"So, today, I am announcing that we are forming a new organisation, the National Institute for Health Protection.
"The National Institute for Health Protection will have a single and relentless mission: protecting people from external threats to this country's health.
"External threats like biological weapons, pandemics and, of course, infectious diseases of all kinds."
The Cabinet minister said England's public health system would learn from South Korea and Germany's Robert Koch Institute "where their health protection agencies have a huge, primary, focus on pandemic response".
It will combine the existing "talent and science infrastructure" of PHE with NHS Test and Trace and the work of the Joint Biosecurity Centre, and be dedicated "to the investigation and prevention of infectious diseases and external health threats”.
On who will run the body the health secretary said: "From today, PHE, the JBC and NHS Test and Trace will operate under single leadership, reporting to Baroness Dido Harding, who will establish the NIHP and undertake the global search for its future leadership.
"I have no doubt that under Baroness Harding we will found the NIHP as a thriving, mission-driven organisation.
"We have a common mission, the greatest mission of any of our working lives, and we have no time to lose in building the institution of the future.”
'TOTAL TRANSPARENCY'
But there has been criticism of the decision to award the job to the Tory peer, who has no prior public health experience and was boss of mobile phone giant TalkTalk when it was fined £400,000 after the personal and banking details of thousands of its customers were accessed in a serious data breach.
Dr Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at Southampton University, told The Guardian her new role “makes about as much sense as [chief medical officer] Chris Whitty being appointed the Vodafone head of branding and corporate image”.
Labour shadow minister Jess Phillips said: "What the hell does Dido Harding know about cervical screening, substance misuse, sexual health, contraception, smoking cessation, obesity or even pandemic planning?
"This from government who brought you the death of 10% of care home residents and long drives for eye tests.”
And the Lib Dem health spokeswoman Munira Wilson said: "We need to have total transparency in how appointments of this kind are made, rather than promoting a Tory insider who's been responsible for the sub-par Test & Trace system."
Her colleague Layla Moran, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus, said: "The lack of public scrutiny or transparent recruitment process for such a crucial appointment is appalling.
“This decision should have been debated and scrutinised in Parliament, instead it was announced at a right-wing think tank without a single question allowed from the media."
'MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS'
Christina Marriott, chief executive of the Royal Society for Public Health meanwhile said the planned changes would leave health officials “with more questions than answers”.
“We question the timing of an announcement to scrap our national public health agency in the midst of a global pandemic and before any public inquiry any has started, let alone reported,” she said.
“We recognise that there have been some serious challenges in terms of our response to Covid-19, including the timing of the lockdown, the ongoing ineffectiveness of Tier 2 Track and Trace and postcode-level data previously not being available to DPHs.
“Multiple lessons need to be learnt before solutions can be in place in advance of the winter. To do otherwise risks avoidable mistakes in subsequent waves of the pandemic which will only harm the public’s health further.”
But Ms Marriott argued that successive governments had “sidelined” public health, with public health budgets “slashed” under the coalition government.
“It may be appropriate for the functions to sit in different agencies – but clear accountability for outcomes in health improvement, health inequalities and health protection must be established,” she said.
And Alex Norris, Labour’s shadow minister for public health, said: “The structural reorganisation that Matt Hancock has announced today is a desperate attempt to shift the blame after years of cutting public health budgets, when the real shift we need is towards an effective local test and trace system that delivers mass testing and case finding.
“Matt Hancock himself was responsible for Public health England and in setting PHE’s priorities last year – ministers didn’t even mention preparing for a pandemic.
“This announcement gave no answers on what will happen to other vital areas of public health like addiction, obesity and sexual health either.
“We went into this pandemic with health inequalities widening and life expectancy going backwards for the poorest.
“We have seen that Covid-19 has thrived on these inequalities, disproportionately impacting the poorest and black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.
“A strong public health sector is needed more than ever.”
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