Report on the work of the Godstone Multi-Agency Implementation Committee

Synopsis

In September 2009, following the major Escherichia coli O157 outbreak at Godstone Farm, the HPA established an Independent Investigation Committee under the Chairmanship of Professor George Griffin. The committee was asked to analyse the events of the outbreak and make recommendations to reduce the risk to open farm visitors in future and to improve the health protection response to future outbreaks.

The Committee published its report in June 2010,with 43 recommendations to a variety of authorities and bodies with a role in helping to prevent and control farm related E. coli O157 outbreaks. In response to the report the HPA set up a multi-agency committee to bring together the responsible authorities to take forward the recommendations.

This is the report of the multi-agency committee’s work over the past year. The first two chapters set out the background and details of the multi-agency committee’s membership and how it worked. The next chapter explores the impact of changes in policy, and organisation and resourcing of the public sector, which the new government have introduced. Chapter 4 presents an overview of progress in taking forward the recommendations.

From the start, the industry and the agencies have shown exceptional commitment to taking forward the recommendations together, so that the learning from the Godstone Independent Investigation could be translated into sustainable good practice. Thanks to this commitment, the work plan which the multiagency committee established to take forward the recommendations has been substantially achieved, although the significant changes across the public sector on the past year have meant that the not all the recommendations could be delivered in the way that the Independent Investigation
Committee proposed.

The final chapter of this report looks to the future with some proposals for sustaining the implementation work beyond the lifetime of the committee. The production of an industry code of practice is making good progress and is hoped that this will be completed in spring 2012. Also, work will continue on joint training at local level between the industry and agencies to build a shared understanding of what good practice looks like. Finally the members propose to meet once a year for an update, ahead of the new open farm season. Details of the actions taken on each of the forty three recommendations are given in the Annex 1; information on the members of the committee is provided in Annex 2.

Please note that there is a minor alteration to the report in annex 1, recommendation 41 page 32, which separates the response from the Scottish Agricultural College from the text provided by Defra.

Last reviewed: 8 February 2012