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The country’s ability to prevent a future pandemic has been significantly enhanced with the announcement of a £1 billion investment in a new National Biosecurity Centre.
This funding will deliver the next phase of a new National Biosecurity Centre - a cutting-edge scientific campus in Surrey that will serve as the UK’s foremost animal biosecurity facility.
The investment is one part of the new National Security Strategy, which marks a step change in this country’s approach to securing British interests whilst also creating jobs, wages, and growth for the British people as part of the Government’s Plan for Change.
Without strong and modernised biosecurity infrastructure, disease incursions could severely impact farmers, agricultural production, devastate rural communities and disrupt key supply chains. The export of livestock, meat and meat products, dairy and animal by-products is worth £16 billion per year alone to the UK economy.
The funding will now enhance the country’s detection, surveillance and control capabilities for high-risk animal diseases such as avian influenza, foot and mouth disease and African swine fever, whilst enhancing our ability to manage concurrent disease outbreaks.
The new facility will join a network of national centres set up by the Cabinet Office under the UK Biological Security Strategy and announced in the National Security Strategy. This new network of government laboratories provides a sovereign capability that keeps the public safe and is essential to responding to biological security risks.
The network will strengthen and formalise existing collaborations between the UK Health Security Agency, the Animal and Plant Health Agency and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory. It will ensure we are better prepared for a crisis, can respond more effectively when an incident does happen and deliver a more holistic approach to biological research.
June 24, 2025/ UK Government/ United Kingdom.
https://www.gov.uk
