Volume 9: Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Part 1: Wales
4. Departmental responsibilities
Welsh Office Health Department (WOHD)
Health Professionals Group (HPG)
Public Health and Family Division (PHF)
Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS)

4.12 Initially the Welsh Office saw BSE as solely an animal health problem. Hence WOAD played a more prominent day-to-day role than the Welsh Office Health Department (WOHD). ¹ However, following the diagnosis of a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy in a cat in 1990, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for Wales and members of the Health Professionals Group took a lively interest in the emergence of the disease. Their involvement is traced in paragraphs 5.8ff below.

Health Professionals Group (HPG)

4.13 Within WOHD the Health Professionals Group, headed by the CMO for Wales, consisted of a small staff of doctors, dentists, pharmacists, scientists and Environmental Health Officers. These staff between them covered the whole field of health and healthcare. Thus, in contrast to animal health arrangements, for which the Secretary of State relied on the MAFF Veterinary Adviser, the Welsh Office had its own human health adviser in the form of the CMO for Wales.

4.14 The CMO at the Welsh Office, a Grade 3, was 'expected to keep abreast of developments with public health and NHS implications and advise Ministers and . . . colleagues as appropriate'. ² The role and responsibilities of the CMO, as described by Dr (now Dame) Deirdre Hine (CMO for Wales from March 1990 to September 1997), were to:

. . . provide medical advice to the Secretary of State for Wales, Ministers and Welsh office colleagues on matters affecting the health of the people of Wales and, as Head of the Health Professionals Group (HPG), to ensure that other professional healthcare advice is provided. ³

4.15 Neither Dr Hine nor her predecessors in the post were members, or present at meetings, of any expert committees advising the Government on BSE, and the Department relied on their DH colleagues for information about the disease. ⁴ Along with the CMOs for Scotland and Northern Ireland, the CMO for Wales attended regular meetings with the CMO at DH, whose role was to advise the Government as a whole. These meetings were informal and were used from time to time by Dr Hine to raise concerns about BSE and keep abreast of developments. ⁵

4.16 Besides the CMO, individual doctors at Deputy Chief Medical Officer (DCMO) and Senior Medical Officer (SMO) level, together with the Environmental Health Adviser, had specific responsibility for communicable disease. ⁶ The DCMO deputised for the Chief Medical Officer and had responsibility inter alia for public health and environmental health issues. The SMO provided input into Parliamentary Questions and ministerial submissions, attended departmental committees of experts within DH and the Health and Safety Executive as Welsh Office observer, and also advised all Departments within the Welsh Office, district health authorities and Environmental Health Officers. ⁷ The role of the Environmental Health Adviser (EHA) was to provide expert, impartial and independent environmental health advice particularly on food safety and meat hygiene to Welsh Office Ministers and officials, and to local government and the NHS in Wales. In October 1992 the post was upgraded to Chief Environmental health Adviser. The EHA's role included giving advice on the hygienic transport, distribution and sale of meat. The activities of the abattoirs themselves and the hygienic preparation of meat within them were primarily the responsibility of local authorities monitored by MAFF and WOAD.

4.17 The key players in the Health Professionals Group, in relation to BSE, were Dr Deirdre Hine (CMO), Dr Michael George (DCMO), Dr David Ferguson-Lewis (DCMO), Dr Ruth Jacobs (SMO) and Mr Ronald Alexander (EHA).

Public Health and Family Division (PHF)

4.18 The Public Health and Family Division (PHF) of the Welsh Office was the policy group that worked with HPG in relation to BSE and vCJD for most of the period of interest to the Inquiry. ⁸ The varied responsibilities of this division included food safety and public health in Wales. ⁹ Mr Derek Adams, Head of PHF, told the Inquiry that his division took the lead on food safety matters concerning produce already on sale to the public, while WOAD took the lead on issues arising during the manufacture and production of food. ¹⁰

Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS)

4.19 The Public Health Laboratory Service was jointly responsible to the Secretary of State for Health and the Secretary of State for Wales. Its task was to protect the population in England and Wales from infection by maintaining a national capacity for the detection, diagnosis, surveillance, prevention and control of infectious and communicable diseases. ¹¹ Between 1985 and 1992 the PHLS had 52 laboratories in all, of which five were in Wales. ¹²

4.20 The PHLS board membership included a Deputy Chief Medical Officer from DH and (until July 1989) a DCMO from the Welsh Office. The Welsh Office provided some funding to the PHLS laboratories in Wales, and as such had a say in formulating the general priorities and objectives of the Service. However, detailed supervision of the PHLS research budget was the responsibility of DH. ¹³

4.21 The Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (CDSC) was based in London, but a Welsh Unit was established in Cardiff in 1989. It was part of the PHLS and provided support and assistance on infectious disease to health authorities, local authorities and regional Public Health Laboratories. ¹⁴

4.22 The CDSC (Welsh Unit) was headed by the Consultant Regional Epidemiologist, who was supported by a consultant epidemiologist. ¹⁵ Their role was:

. . . the surveillance of communicable disease in Wales, field investigation of communicable disease in Wales, the training of public health specialists, and acting as Advisor to the Chief Medical Officer at the Welsh Office (CMO) on the epidemiology and control of communicable diseases in Wales. ¹⁶