About Us

Animal Health is an Executive Agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).  It employs some 1700 staff including vets and Animal Health Officers and operates from 25 main offices and other outstations throughout Great Britain. Its budget is c£120m and it operates an on call 24/7 service for disease and welfare emergencies.

The organisation has a long and prestigious history and was known as The State Veterinary Service until April 2007, when it amalgamated with several other smaller and related organisations to become Animal Health.

Animal Health’s core purpose is to respond to exotic animal disease outbreaks (such as Avian Influenza and Foot and Mouth Disease) and it has established a solid reputation in that arena. Risk management is at the heart of the organisation’s operations and it undertakes a wide range of regular and varied work in the animal health and welfare field more generally.  This ranges from border controls, through advice, inspection and certification, to surveillance and monitoring activities. A major ongoing active disease control challenge is bovine tuberculosis and a significant proportion of the organisation’s day-to-day effort goes into this area. The organisation conducts some 6 million bovine TB tests annually.  We also regulate the trade in endangered species and in England and Wales work to protect public health by ensuring that dairy hygiene and egg production standards are met.

More information is available on the role of Animal Health in the section ‘About Us’ on the website at: www.defra.gov.uk/animalhealth.

Moving Forward

Since it became an Executive Agency in 2005 the organisation has been developing its management and operational structures, systems and processes.  It is now poised to begin the implementation of new IT systems that enable new ways of working and the further development of its operating model to respond to likely future demands on the organisation.  The first module, supporting improved customer account management, will be implemented in the summer of 2008, making this an exciting time for the organisation.  Animal Health publishes its Corporate and Business Plans, as well as Annual Report and Accounts on its website.  These detail the organisation’s achievements and its development plans.

The organisation is increasingly taking a leading role within Defra for delivering the wider transformation agenda for government, for example in simplifying the animal identification and movement regimes across GB. Transformation will continue to be an important component of the organisation’s work as the approach to better regulation and enforcement and the implementation of the Animal Health Strategy are developed.