Corporate report

UKHSA Advisory Board: 11 March January 2025 minutes

Updated 12 May 2025

Date: 11 March 2025

Present at the meeting were:

• Ian Peters – Chair of UKHSA Advisory Board
• Jon Friedland – Non-executive member
• Dame Jenny Harries – Chief Executive
• Graham Hart – Non-executive member
• Susan Hopkins – Chief Medical Advisor
• Mark Lloyd – Non-executive member
• Raj Long – Associate non-executive member
• Sir Gordon Messenger – Non-executive member
• Isabel Oliver – Director General, Science and Research
• Cindy Rampersaud – Non-executive member
• Steven Riley – Director General, Data, Analytics and Surveillance

Observers at the meeting were:

• Lee Bailey – Director of Communications
• Jon Cocking – Director, People and Workplace
• Catherine Frances – Director General, Global and Public Health (DHSC)
• Hannah Taylor - Director of Strategy and Policy
• 1 attendee had their name and title redacted

In attendance at the meeting were:

• 12 attendees had their name and title redacted

Apologies were received from:

• Sir Frank Atherton – Chief Medical Officer (Wales)
• Simon Blagden – Associate non-executive member
• Dame Marie Gabriel – Associate non-executive member
• Luke Heath – Director, Finance, Performance, Risk & Assurance
• Sir Michael McBride – Chief Medical Officer Northern (Ireland)
• Sir Gregor Smith – Chief Medical Officer (Scotland)
• Thom Waite – Deputy Chief Medical Officer (England)
• Sir Chris Whitty – Chief Medical Officer (England)

1. 1. Announcements, apologies and declarations of interest

25/034 The Chair welcome participants to the meeting and noted apologies. There were no declarations of interest.

25/035 Thanks were noted to Andrew Lee and the Leeds office team for hosting the Advisory Board.

25/036 The following announcements were noted:

• the meeting marked the last attendance of Isabel Oliver in her capacity as Chief Scientific Officer at the Advisory Board. She was thanked for her efforts since UKHSA’s inception, including publishing the first Science Strategy, establishing the Vaccine Development and Evaluation Centre and the Centre for Climate and Health Security,
• Simon Blagden’s appointment as associate non-executive was ending in April 2025. He was thanked for his support to the Board and Audit and Risk Committee.
• recruitment was underway for a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) with the incoming Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive, Dyfed Alsop joining in May, to act as interim CEO following Jenny Harries departure.
• recruitment for a non-executive was in train and interviews planned for an associate non-executive.

2. 2. Minutes of previous meeting and matters arising

25/037 The Advisory Board noted the minutes of the previous meeting (enclosure AB/25/011) and list of actions (enclosure AB/25/012). The current actions were on track or not yet due.

3. 3. Chief Executive’s update

25/038 The Chief Executive presented her update on UKHSA’s activity (enclosure AB/25/013). The Chief Executive noted further thanks to Isabel Oliver and congratulations on her new appointment.

25/039 The Advisory Board noted the update. The main areas of activity included:

• assuring a smooth handover of responsibilities in light of upcoming leadership changes;
• monitoring global health threats against the backdrop of increasing geopolitical instability;
• reviewing the impact of leadership changes within the wider health system announced during the week;
• preparing for the annual UKHSA Conference on 25 and 26 March which would bring together partners from academia, industry and the healthcare system;
• responding to cases of mpox, avian influenza (H5N1) and a single case of lassa fever involving tracing of over 150 contacts;
• monitoring the emergence of unusual norovirus genotypes which saw increasing demand on the health system;
• publishing the Bloodborne Virus Testing Evaluation Report and launch of the Tuberculosis Annual Report;
• UKHSA teams supporting response to the collision of an oil tanker and cargo ship in the North Sea with current public health risks rated low.

25/040 Further detail was provided on the Diagnostic Accelerator which consisted of a core team working in a network approach with other laboratories. It identified diagnostics available against priority pathogens through in house assays, although substantial work was needed to scale options with commercial partners.

25/041 There was interest in the impact on relationships with the Africa Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and wider global health impacts following the changes in US Agency for International Development funding. UKHSA remained confident in its position as a trusted partner of the WHO and Africa CDC. The agency continued inputting technical and policy perspectives to DHSC on global health risks.  Any possibility of expanding UKHSA’s role would be dependent on Official Development Assistance funding. 

25/042 Additionally, the Chair of the Board and Departmental Sponsor would confirm an appropriate time for discussion on the global health landscape. (Action: Ian Peters / Catherine Frances)

4. 4. Financial Report

25/043 The Advisory Board noted the financial update to the end of January 2025 (enclosure AB/25/014) presented by the Deputy Director, Financial Operations & Control.

25/044 The following points were raised in respect to the financial position:

• the Core RDEL budget forecast a pressure of £5.9million related to historic balances. UKHSA remained confident it would manage the pressure in discussion with DHSC.
• a reset of the Financial Control and Improvement Programme had begun, aiming to transform the whole finance function to be high performing;
• the annual audit of FY24/25 accounts had started with agreement to target certification of the final accounts on 31 October 2025;
• phase 1 of the Spending Review indicated a positive settlement with teams planning for phase 2;
• the increase in core capital budget for FY25/26 was underpinned by business plans to ensure spending remained on track throughout the year and avoid previous stop / start issues;
• [Title redacted] agreed to contact the Audit and Risk Committee Chair with clarity on the planning assumptions of 0.8% pay rise for staff on NHS terms and conditions.

5. 5. Leadership

25/045 The Director of People and Workplace introduced the paper (enclosure AB/25/015), reinforcing the importance of leadership capability in our people as critical to success of the organisation.

25/046 Interventions in the previous 12 months were reactive with the intention to move away from large scale generic development offers.  Other learnings had been taken from specific interventions which had not been fully successful. There was a notable impact of the SCS restructure which had exposed gaps in succession planning.

25/047 A revised framework of leadership expectations had been communicated at the Senior Civil Service (SCS) Away Day in March with the plan to launch across UKHSA. In part this is designed to encourage individual and collective leadership capability.

25/048 The Advisory Board noted the decision to focus on leadership and line management as the prime response to the Civil Service People Survey results for 2024.

25/049 The Advisory Board noted the progress of interventions in previous 12 months and endorsed a holistic approach to leadership, development, performance management and line management capability.

25/050 Feedback noted the following points:

• it was recognised that starting with the SCS cohort set the tone for demonstrable behaviours that must be implemented amongst other staff. However, there was a risk of focusing too heavily on senior leadership hampering ability to embed a leadership culture throughout all levels of the organisation;
• members supported the focus on identifying talent pipelines. It must be underpinned with a robust approach to objective setting and performance appraisals that should be developmentally orientated;
• there was opportunity to explore central recording of performance appraisals and utilise data from large-language models to drive the right interventions;
• UKHSA had identified learning from earlier Ernst Young contract. Future consultation programmes would include greater engagement across all levels of the organisation;
• initial feedback of the SCS Away Day indicated a lack of consistency on defining leadership across the agency and the need to operate collectively as a leadership cadre;
• a consistent set of expectations and principles for leadership was encouraged, while acknowledging the possible need for appropriate variation in some scientific roles;
• the Executive Committee was encouraged to design the measurement of successful outcomes for the planned interventions to demonstrate impact on UKHSA’s leadership capability. (Action: Executive Committee/Jon Cocking)

25/051 It was agreed that the People and Culture Committee would take an active role in development of the leadership framework and review of interventions before an update to the Advisory Board in 12 months.

6. 6. Genomics

25/052 [Titles redacted] presented an update on progress of the Pathogen Genomics Programme (enclosure AB/25/016). The cross-agency initiative aimed to deliver integrated end to end pathogen genomics, and systemic organisational transformation in genomics delivery, infrastructure and workforce.

25/053 The Advisory Board noted the very positive progress of the Genomics Programme.

25/054 Programme successes included:

• publishing the Data Sharing Standard Operating Procedure in January 2025 which enabled genomic data for green risk assessed pathogens to be publicly available for academics and other partners to utilise;
• public launch of mSCAPE (metagenomics Surveillance Collaboration and Analysis Programme) which drives collaboration with partners and efficiency in sharing information;
• developing an ethical framework through public engagement;
• progress in understanding diversity of viruses and how to ensure treatment was based on the relevant genotype;
• partnership with laboratory networks to build resilience and equity of access for patients and staff development opportunities;
• harmonising genomic surveillance and policy through the four nations subgroup;
• engagement with industry and academic partners on research priorities within genomics;

25/055 Discussion noted the following points:

• UKHSA was reaching out to all partners, including Genomics England to develop a national position on the crossover privacy implications between human and pathogen genomic data;
• it was important to consider representation of different genome expressions from diverse population groups in samples;
• encouraged to shape which research grants were needed with partners;
• UKHSA contributed to working groups with the World Health Organization (WHO) to understand global inputs and outputs in genomics. The agency aspires to make a significant global contribution to realise opportunities in the genomics space and the resulting public health outcomes;
• the publication of UKHSA’s Data Sharing Standard Operating Procedure and other activity attracted the interest of partners. These included WHO and international partners working on the same challenges, alongside academics wanting to utilise UKHSA data.

25/056 Long terms aims for the programme included:

• getting more data through a risk assessment process and into a state to share with partners. This would cover data rated amber from a privacy risk perspective that could be used by academic partners in a trusted research environment while managing risks of larger public access.
• showing the overall value case of metagenomics, noting the ability to centralise and analyse data with the NHS;
• progressing the ethical framework and patient understanding of privacy risks in using residual human genome data from pathogen genome samples;
• evaluating the services currently offered to ensure value for money.

25/057 It was agreed to provide a further update on the programme in 12months. (Action: Susan Hopkins)

7. 7. Artificial Intelligence

25/058 The Chief Data Officer, Deputy Director, Data Science & Geospatial and Deputy Director, UKHSA Global Health Strategy and Engagement presented the update on UKHSA’s adoption and utilisation of artificial intelligence (AI) (enclosure AB/25/017).

25/059 UKHSA continued to explore opportunities to use AI to safeguard public health through innovative deployments and enhanced business productivity. UKHSA led use-cases of AI solutions had been included in a briefing to the Secretary of State (e.g. use of AI in Tuberculosis Screening demonstrating 80% reduction in manual tasks). A trial of M365 co-pilot was successful for internal application with discussions ongoing to scale across the agency.

25/060 An internal AI Strategy had been developed with an 18month timeframe to be revised in conjunction with the next UKSHA Corporate Strategy. It focused on enhancing data, inclusive upskilling, supporting efficiency across the civil service and ensuring impactful public health outcomes.

25/061 The Advisory Board noted the developments in UKHSA’s use of AI and approach to organisational readiness for adoption and utilisation of AI.

25/062 Discussion recognised the Government wide challenge in realising the benefits of AI while balancing risks of adopting new tools. The Board welcomed the foundations of UKHSA’s approach and encouraged considered reflection on the risk appetite and capacity challenges to faster paced utilisation of AI tools, particularly in the efficiency applications.  AI risk appetite should feature in the forthcoming ARC workshop. (Action: Cindy Rampersaud)

25/063 The current AI Strategy was internally focused. A review alongside the next corporate strategy would support further exploration of opportunities from AI, including more innovation and enabling of partners. It was agreed that the next Board update on AI would be considered in the context of a revised corporate strategy. (Action: Steven Riley)

25/064 The Deputy Director, UKHSA Global Health Strategy and Engagement agreed to review engagement with the four nations on AI.

8. 8. Advisory Board Committees

25/065 The Advisory Board noted verbal updates from the latest Committee meetings as below:

• the People and Culture Committee welcomed Jon Cocking to the Committee and discussed results of the Civil Service People Survey which included leadership behaviour, and an update on HR casework and grievance policy.

25/066 The Advisory Board noted the confirmed minutes as below:

• the Science and Research Committee meeting on 19 November 2024 (enclosure AB/25/018).
• the People and Culture Committee meeting on 26 November 2024 (enclosure AB/25/019).
• the Equalities, Ethics and Communities Committee meeting on 8 October 2024 (enclosure AB/25/020).

9. 9. Questions from members of the public

25/067 No questions were received from members of the public.

10. 10. Forward Look

25/068 The Advisory Board noted the forward look (enclosure AB/25/021).

11. 11. Any other business and close

25/069 There being no other business, the meeting closed at 3:31pm.