Organisational Background: The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) is an executive agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), providing services to the Scottish and Welsh Governments, other government departments, and a range of other customers.
APHA is part of the Food, Farming, and Biosecurity (FFaB) system. APHA maintains essential disease investigation and response capability, as well as supporting the trade in plants, animals and associated products through effective certification, audit and inspection. The Agency protects our borders through effective import controls on animals, plants, seeds and products of animal origin.
Our headquarters is located in Weybridge, Surrey. We employ around 2,000+ staff, based at various sites across the UK.
Organisational Aims & Mission: We have one mission, which is to safeguard animal and plant health for the benefit of everyone in society, the environment and the economy – and every one of our employees is passionate about achieving this mission.
We’re responsible for:
- Identifying and controlling endemic and exotic diseases and pests in animals, plants and bees, and surveillance of new and emerging pests and diseases.
- Scientific research in areas such as bacterial, viral, prion and parasitic diseases and vaccines, and food safety.
- And act as an international reference laboratory for many farm animal diseases.
- Facilitating international trade in animals, products of animal origin, and plants.
- Protecting endangered wildlife through licensing and registration.
- Managing a programme of apiary (bee) inspections, diagnostics, research and development, and training and advice.
- Regulating the safe disposal of animal by-products to reduce the risk of potentially dangerous substances entering the food chain.
