Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what lessons his Department has learned from the (a) avian inflluenza outbreak in Scotland in 2022-23 and (b) other avian influenza outbreaks in the UK to help prevent the spread.

This question was answered on 10th March 2025
Defra’s approach to avian influenza is set out in the Notifiable Avian Disease Control Strategy for Great Britain supported by the Mitigation Strategy for Avian Influenza in Wild Birds in England and Wales and the Scottish wild bird highly pathogenic avian influenza response plan. Current policy reflects our experience of responding to previous outbreaks of exotic animal disease and is in line with international standards of best practice for disease control. All exotic disease control and prevention measures are kept under regular review as part of the government’s ongoing work to monitor and manage the risks of exotic disease.

In addition, to regularly exercising our disease response capabilities lessons identified reviews are undertaken at the conclusion of outbreaks to identify and evaluate where improvements to disease response capability, processes and organisational structures for managing an outbreak of exotic notifiable disease can be made.

The feedback, including that of Devolved Governments, operational partners and stakeholders is collated in lessons identified reports. These reports are published on gov.uk and provide the framework for improvements of the response to and management of disease outbreaks and the review of contingency plans, policies and operational instructions.