Chairman's Statement

It's my pleasure to introduce this, the Third Annual Report of the Health Protection Agency. Compiled by the Chief Executive and her Executive team, the Report offers a snapshot of the vast array of work carried out by the Agency over the past 12 months. I congratulate staff at all levels on their hard work and endeavour and thank the Departments of Health and the Devolved Administrations for the continued support that they have given the Agency in this, its first year as a Non-Departmental Public Body. The sheer breadth of the work that we have to tackle is evident from the few examples presented in this report, but it is important to recognise also the uniqueness of the capability which the Agency can provide in its thrust to ensure ever improving public health protection. Let me touch on two examples.

First, the work of the Radiation Protection Division. It provides an unmatched source of advice, research and analyses on a vast range of public health radiation protection issues such as radon, power lines, mobile phones, developments in international radiation exposure standards, on the use of radiation devices in hospitals and this year it has set in place a new independent examination of the use of ultrasound in medical practice. Most importantly, however, the Division, as the former National Radiological Protection Board, historically, has played key roles in two previous public health inquiries related to the building of nuclear power stations in the UK . The first was the inquiry in to the Sizewell B power station, which was built, and the other the inquiry in to Hinkley C power station, which was not built. In the event of any proposal to develop new power plants in the UK the Agency would expect to provide substantial evidence and advice directly to any inquiry and to government organisations, and has to tool itself up with this possibility in mind.

Second, on the life sciences side, there is the uniqueness of the Agency's surveillance of infectious disease capability. This is increasingly required as people movement into and out of the UK and across national boundaries intensifies. The threat of pandemic 'flu remains a concern, the incidence of sexually transmissible diseases continues to rise, and antibiotic resistant bacteria and antiviral resistant viruses continue to be with us, whilst vaccines are not available or inappropriate for use in some key cases. Such information requires the national analyses which the Agency can provide.

The Agency is now three years old, much has been delivered as this report shows and we are proud of that, but much more remains to be done with necessarily limited resources. Operationally, managerially and entrepreneurially, new systems will have to come in to play to help further deliver our commitment to ever improving health-care provision for the people of the United Kingdom .

Sir William Stewart FRS