The Department does not have an overarching long-term strategy for strengthening resilience to the increasing risk from animal diseases. The Department has several strategic programmes underway to strengthen resilience to animal diseases, including the redevelopment of the National Biosecurity Centre and developing an integrated animal tracing system. However, there is no overarching strategy and plan which brings this work together in a comprehensive and integrated way. The Department plans to develop such a strategy over the next 18 months. recommendation The Department should provide the Committee with an update in 18 months’ time on its progress in developing a long-term strategy for animal diseases. The strategy should be sufficiently comprehensive and reflect interdependencies with the other areas of the Department’s work, such as on plant health and honeybees. 6 1 Preparedness for a major animal disease outbreak Introduction