Hancock confirms new body to replace Public Health England

By Gareth Jones, Newgate Public Affairs

Matt Hancock confirmed today that Public Health England will be replaced by a new body, the National Institute for Health Protection (NIHP), which will be responsible for dealing with pandemics and infectious diseases and coordinating the government’s response in England. 

Speaking at an event held by think tank Policy Exchange, the Health Secretary said that the new agency will merge Public Health England with the NHS coronavirus test and trace programme and the Joint Biosecurity Centre – and would be headed, in the interim, by Dido Harding, a Conservative member of the House of Lords and the current head of the test and trace programme – who will report directly to the Health Secretary. Hancock said the Institute would provide a new approach to protecting people from external threats to this country’s health and “external threats like biological weapons, pandemics, and of course, infectious diseases.” 

While the organisation will be formalised and be operating from spring 2021, Hancock confirmed that NIHP will start work now, amid concerns of a resurgence of Covid-19 infections in the autumn or winter and the potential for the crisis to be worsened by a winter flu outbreak. Hancock noted that his “single biggest fear” is “a novel flu, or another major health alert, hitting us right now in the middle of this battle against coronavirus”. He added that “Even once this crisis has passed — and it will pass — we need a disease control infrastructure that gives us the permanent, standing capacity to respond as a nation and the ability to scale up at pace.”

The move to replace Public Health England with a new body comes as the government seeks to manage the next phase of the pandemic, but also addresses some of the perceived failings in its initial response. Hancock said that the new agency would be modelled on Germany's Robert Koch Institute which had been widely praised in its efforts in responding to the crisis and added that UK officials would look to learn from other countries that have handled the pandemic well, such as South Korea. 

While there are clearly many lessons to be learned from these other agencies, some critics have claimed that this move is part of a wider ‘blame game’ being used by government to shift responsibility, arguing the government has increasingly sought to place the spotlight on Public Health England for much of what has gone wrong during the past few months – most notably on its decision to suspend community testing and tracing back in March. Opposition parties have been quick to note, however, that these decisions were ultimately the responsibility of government ministers. Labour has already described plans to scrap Public Health England in the middle of a pandemic as “irresponsible” and accused the government of seeking to “shift the blame” for its own failings.