Corporate report

UKHSA Advisory Board: Science and Research Committee minutes

Updated 11 September 2023

Date: Wednesday 13 September 2023

Sponsor: Jon Friedland

Recommendation

The Advisory Board is asked to note the minutes of 3 May 2023 meeting of the Audit and Risk Committee. The minutes were agreed on 4 September 2023.

Minutes (confirmed), UKHSA Science and Research Committee, Wednesday 3 May 2023

Present at the meeting were:

• Jon Friedland – Non-executive Chair
• Mary De Silva – Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser, Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC)
• Jennifer Dixon – Non-executive member
• Graham Hart – Non-executive member
• Raj Long – Associate non-executive member
• Isabel Oliver – Chief Scientific Officer (interim)
• Steven Riley – Director General, Data, Analytics and Surveillance (DAS)
• John Arne-Røttingen – International Impact Expert - Ambassador for Global Health at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway

In attendance at the meeting were:

• Sarah Collins – Director of Commercial
• Edward Wynne-Evans – Director of Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards
• 10 attendees had their name and title redacted

Apologies were received from:

• Susan Hopkins –Chief Medical Advisor

Welcome, apologies and declarations of interest

23/047 The Chair welcomed participants to the Science and Research Committee and noted apologies. In particular, the Chair welcomed the Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser, DHSC, who would be attending the meetings going forward on behalf of the Chief Scientific Adviser, DHSC.

23/048 There were no declarations of interest.

Minutes of previous meeting, matters arising and updated terms of reference

23/049 The minutes of the previous meeting of 8 February 2023 (enclosure SRC/23/007) were agreed.

23/050 With regards to the 100 Days Mission, the Chief Scientific Officer (interim) confirmed that she represented the UK on the international secretariat run from Wellcome.

23/051 The Committee noted the actions report (enclosure SRC/23/008).

23/052 The actions report included ongoing actions that could be classified as completed but would require an ongoing update on progress. The Chair and Chief Scientific Officer (interim) would meet to discuss how an appropriate update could be provided to the Science and Research Committee, both at meetings and between meetings. (Action: Jon Friedland / Isabel Oliver)

23/053 The Committee agreed the updated terms of reference.

Animal research: governance and oversight

23/054 A paper (enclosure SRC/22/010) was presented by [Title redacted], who was also representing the established licence holders The paper provided a briefing to the Committee on the scientific research undertaken by UKHSA using animal models and the associated standards, responsibilities and commitments.

23/055 While alternatives were used wherever possible, this research played an essential role in understanding how infectious, radiological, chemical and other environmental agents could impact human health and the effectiveness of vaccines and therapeutics. It was an essential capability for health security as well as wider opportunities for scientific advancement. During the COVID-19 response, it had formed a critical component in understanding in modelling infection, disease progression, and development and testing of vaccines and therapeutics, both from the UK and overseas.

23/056 UKHSA was committed to the principles of replacement, reduction and refinement of animal use in its scientific work, it remained a requirement for regulators before approval of pesticides and other chemicals, and vaccines and other therapeutics was granted.

23/057 It was noted that the ethical implications of such work had been recently considered at the UKHSA Equalities, Ethics and Communities Committee.

23/058 The Committee discussed how animal research was funded. It was explained that funds were obtained from a number of sources, including both internal and external grants. There were a broad range of funding bodies including UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), industry partners and other governments and international organisations. UKHSA had an excellent global reputation, which attracted work.

It was noted that the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) would not fund research using animals, and therefore such work could not be performed under the NIHR Health Protection Research Units (HPRUs). It was therefore part supported by grant in aid funding, with the option to access priority funds as appropriate.

23/059 The health and safety of staff working with animals was covered by suitable risk assessments at local level.

23/060 The Committee noted that UKHSA was a signatory on the Concordat on Openness on Animal Research and, as part of this, was committed to being more transparent with the public about when, how and why it used animals in its work. Information on this was published annually. The activities were regulated by the Home Office, who undertook inspections of UKHSA’s facilities, and which helped to identify areas for further investment. rigorous and frequent inspections and audits by the Home Office.

23/061 [Information withheld in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000.]

23/062 The Committee recommended that:

• the interdependencies with income generation and commercial strategy be documented to demonstrate how it brought value to the delivery of the agency
• UKHSA’s role in ‘maintaining skills for the country’ be considered further
• consideration be given to consolidating the smaller (in terms of animal use) site to manage significant upkeep costs (Action: Isabel Oliver)

Data strategy

23/063 The Director General, DAS and the [Title redacted] presented a paper (enclosure SRC/23/011) which outlined the UKHSA data strategy the purpose of which was to unify the approach to data across all UKHSA groups and enable health security objectives.

23/064 The Committee were reminded that a paper was requested for consideration by the Science and Research Committee following the Advisory Board presentation on 16 November 2022.

23/065 The Committee discussed how the data strategy fitted in to the wider government landscape. It was noted that:

• the Chief Economist Office were undertaking a review of data use at DHSC; links were in place with the DHSC Deputy Director Statistics and Data Science
• the team were working closely with the Cabinet Office but were not currently cited on how Ministers used data
• the Data Maturity Assessment for Government would be rolled out across UKHSA; this assessment model was promoted by Cabinet Office as the standard to use across government
• there was a DHSC project on data critical assets to reduce the risks of healthcare data being shared across organisations

23/066 The Committee discussed how some data practices may be linked to culture and power. The organisational design would influence culture and behaviour around data, and there were different teams from other organisations to consider.

It was observed that data owners and controllers had power and influence because of their data assets, however engagement rarely took place using those terms. Instead, it was necessary to examine behaviour over time. The focus was on the processes around people to make it as easy as possible for other culture focused initiatives. [Information withheld in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000.] Therefore, the governance around who should be the owner and was included in the programme.

23/067 The Committee were encouraged by the development of data maturity assessments and discussed the extent to which UKHSA owned data, was curator and relied on other data sources, together with the restrictions on data storage. It was explained that the Science Group produced most of the high value data owned by UKHSA.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, UKHSA curated and added value to the data it obtained from various sources. Much of its data did not originate from within the organisation. The extent to which data was retained varied depending on its origins. The COVID-19 dashboard was aggregate data but was successful in terms of engagement. Bilateral data arrangements came at a high management cost.

23/068 The Committee discussed data retention further. It was explained that data was collected for different purposes. Healthcare and public health management data could form part of people’s records and was therefore governed by different criteria to research data. For research data, there was a requirement to retain child data for a longer period than adult data. Data collaboration with industry took place for specific reasons such as for the development of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics. This would be focused on as a growth area going forward, and subject to appropriate levels of transparency and governance. The current priority was compliance.

23/069 The Committee recommended that:

• there were further opportunities to use data more collaboratively with NIHR, HPRUs and academic colleagues; there were also possibilities to connect with hospitals, GP practices, and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and there would be further investigations of COVID-19 and its impact with the Department for Education (DfE)
• a section be included that explained how data fitted in with the overall UKHSA strategy and the science and research strategy
• to emphasise that the science strategy and data strategy were linked and were essential for all UKHSA work
• examples be included where data had been helpful in deciding on a course of action (or inaction, such as the Commonwealth games)
• the value being brought to the organisation, external bodies and partners should be articulated
• less detail should be included to ensure it was focused on strategy and more ‘readable’
• there should be further explanations of governance and the linkages with government and explanations of technical terms such as the roles of ‘guardians’ and ‘data asset owners’
• information be included on why UKHSA is good with data, the unique value UKHSA brings and how this helps to save partners money (such as the NHS)

(Action: Steven Riley)

23/070 It was agreed that the Chair would discuss data strategy further with the Director General, DAS. (Action: Jon Friedland / Steven Riley)

Health security threat assessment

23/071 The Director General, DAS introduced [titles redacted] who provided a presentation on the approach that had been developed for the health security threat assessment (HSTA) (enclosure SRC/23/012). The members were reminded that the Advisory Board had requested the Science and Research Committee consider the detail of this matter further.

23/072 All Hazards Intelligence (AHI) in DAS had developed a proof of concept (Phase 1) for an overarching assessment of the acute health threats that the agency is responsible for. Each health threat was assessed using a reasonable worst case scenario (RWCS), which set out a challenging but plausible manifestation of each threat. A similar approach was used throughout government for planning purposes.

23/073 The Committee discussed the linkages with the biosecurity strategy. It was explained this the HSTA represented UKHSA’s view of the threats as an organisational requirement. A briefing had been provided to the [title redacted] but the work was at an early stage and had not been tested more broadly.

23/074 The Committee discussed risk identification of research gaps. The NIHR should be funding areas identified as threats and for which there were no countermeasures. There was a new area of research interest for compound pressures.

23/075 It was agreed the Director General, Data, Analytics and Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser, DHSC would meet to discuss further the biosecurity linkages and identification of research gaps. (Action: Steven Riley / Mary De Silva)

23/076 The Committee discussed whether there was a mitigation assessment. It was explained that this had been considered in the ‘Ready to Respond’ paper presented to the Executive Committee which had looked at how RWCS drove preparedness work.

23/077 The Committee recommended that:

• agility should be considered earlier than at stage 3 since The UK Resilience Framework used an ‘agile dynamic ongoing’ method of assessing risk
• consideration should be given to the handling of misinformation that could have a significant impact
• for the scoring matrix of direct health impacts, mental health should be part of long-term health impacts; long-term population health impacts should also be included
• the analysis should better reflect which hazards disproportionally affect vulnerable groups and the degree to which they are disproportionally affected
• consideration be given to sharing the methodology with organisations with which UKHSA has less close links who may be more critical (for example Centre for Disease Control)
• to broaden the analysis to include further a more detailed assessment of ‘unknowns’ such climate change
• the 1 to 5 scales were not equally valid for each disease and may require modification depending on what was being looked at
• to reflect that the impact of diseases where there were mitigations in place (for example vaccines) would be very different to where there we none
• to have a programme in place to regularly review and refresh the HSTA
• NIHR had an important role to play
• international input should be sought from Bayada Home Health Care
• the Centre for Forecasting and Outbreak Analysis should be contacted for their input

Identification of research needs

23/078 The Deputy Director Research Management and Knowledge presented a paper (enclosure SRC/23/013) that explained the planned approach for the improvement of the process for identification and prioritisation of research and evaluation needs during incidents and coordination of activity.

23/079 The Committee commented that there were a number of DHSC investments through the NIHR and separately which had scope for rapid response. For NIHR, these were the HPRUs and Policy Research Units and for the Medical Research Council (MRC) through MRC units (and their successor investments Centres of Research Excellence).

23/080 The Committee discussed what needed to be done to prepare for an incident and the research structures that were required. It was explained that the Centre for Pandemic Preparedness (CPP) was undertaking a ‘lessons learned’ project for pandemics, and that separate discussions between UKHSA and funders were underway to consider ‘sleeper studies’ needed for preparedness.

The Committee commented that the DHSC were coordinating a pandemic preparedness research strategy which considered the research infrastructures that were needed for medical countermeasures development, clinical trial platforms, and population data studies. This research strategy considered plans for research that rapidly ‘pivots’ to address emerging needs. Cross-government agreement was being sought on what would be needed, with UKHSA assisting in this identification.

23/081 The Committee recommended that:

• research should be aligned with the overall UKHSA strategy and international priorities
• NIHR HPRUs should be complemented by smaller specialist mini-HPRUs with expertise in certain areas to enable rapid pivoting and application of unique expertise
• discussions should take place with UKRI and the MRC concerning the extent to which Centres of Research Excellence could help respond in the event of a national emergency and how it could be better co-ordinated long term
• consideration be given to linking in with the prioritisation mechanisms at the World Health Organization (WHO) and at European level and to consider how the UK could be an implementer of those priorities
• the gaps identified by external groups should be mapped out; externally, lower or middle income counties as the origins of some diseases should be included and it was suggested that links with the African Vaccine Regulatory Forum be established for joint reviews
• Appendix C needed to be refined from a list to activities to defined work which could undertaken with government, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), industry partners and academics; it should also define the work UKHSA would be leading on and the activities it would not be undertaking
• an end to end view be produced and the analysis expanded beyond viral infections

(Actions: Isabel Oliver)

23/082 The Committee commented that there was a need to change the UKHSA research culture so there was a central understanding of what the research was needed whilst allowing individuals the flexibility to try new approaches. There was an opportunity for UKHSA as a new organisation to help define the culture.

23/083 It was agreed that Identification of Research Needs would be reconsidered by the Science and Research Committee within 9 months. (Action: Isabel Oliver)

Links with industry and strategic partners

23/084 The Director of Commercial presented a paper (enclosure SRC/23/014) to update the Science and Research Committee on work to strengthen UKHSA’s management of commercial partners and relationships and promote UKHSA’s offer to industry.

23/085 The Science and Research Committee noted the 3 types of commercial partnerships which included:

• UKHSA buying goods and services from commercial companies, guided by clear procurement regulatory frameworks
• UKHSA being contracted by the private sector to deliver goods and services
• ongoing conversations, market scanning and research and development which may evolve into a contracting relationship

23/086 The Committee emphasised that supplier relationships to procure goods and services were very different from partnerships to develop and share information. However, it was acknowledged that the risks associated with supplier relationships could impact the innovation side.

23/087 Work was underway to establish where UKHSA was exposed by only having limited suppliers available/single supplier scenarios and to mitigate this with a multi-source approach if possible.

23/088 [Information withheld in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000.] There was an opportunity to work with the Office of Life Sciences (OLS) to align the offer to industry, and the DHSC as buyer through the NHS. It was confirmed UKHSA was engaged with the OLS and that work was underway to define a ‘package’ that UKHSA could offer industry.

23/089 The Committee recommended that:

• prioritising base customers was important
• the crucial role of the UK should be mapped out together with how strategic partners fitted in. This would also help provide the customer with a holistic strategic picture (Action: Sarah Collins)
• UKHSA should be positioned as a ‘one stop shop’ for certain services; although UKHSA did not control all areas, it could assist with access and play a co-ordination role
• some companies being targeted had global reach and would be using multi-country platforms; this reinforced the need to have a connection with key countries outside of the UK which would have a critical role for these companies
• there was a need for better strategy and co-ordination for diagnostics
• industry in this context was not restricted to pharmaceutical companies and included artificial intelligence and data companies
• a policy be considered to deal with colleagues leaving UKHSA and planning to monetise their learning and research

23/090 The target to increase income was discussed and whether an appropriate incentive structure was in place to increase it. The Committee emphasised the importance of having an appropriate incentive structure or there was a risk of stifling future innovation.

23/091 The Committee noted a very successful business partnering day had recently been held at Porton and there were plans to repeat it at the Chilton site.

Forward look and topics for future meetings

23/092 The Science and Research Committee noted the topics for future meetings as listed in the paper (enclosure SRC/23/015).

23/093 The Chair would meet with the Chief Scientific Officer (interim) to review the forward look to decide the agenda for the next meeting.

23/094 Science salaries remained an ongoing issue and would be considered for inclusion as part of a general update from the Chief Scientific Officer (interim). It was suggested that there may be an opportunity for UKHSA to collaborate with other arm’s length bodies (including DHSC) in recruitment given the similar organisation profiles. (Action: Isabel Oliver / Jon Friedland)

23/095 It was suggested that the Science and Research Committee consider artificial intelligence, both as an opportunity and a threat

Any other business and close

23/096 There being no other business, the meeting ended at 1pm.

May 2023