Work paused on dangerous pathogens research facility

An artist's impression of how the public health labs planned for Harlow would look

Work to build a proposed research facility designed to prepare the UK for dangerous pathogens has stopped, a committee heard.

Costs have skyrocketed from £530m to more than £3bn in the government's project to open a health security campus in Harlow, Essex.

The House of Commons public affairs committee said on Monday that a thorough review should be undertaken into "spiralling costs and a failure to deliver".

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) previously told the BBC it had "always been focused" on delivering value for the taxpayer.

Concerns had been raised about current high-containment laboratories in Porton Down, Wiltshire, and Colindale, north London, at the start of the project.

In 2015, HM Treasury approved Public Health England's outline business case for a new £530m national integrated hub for public health science.

Funding for the programme was used to purchase the Harlow site in 2017 and it was planned that both the laboratories and workforce from Port Down and Colindale would be relocated there.

Thousands of new laboratory jobs were promised for Harlow by 2024 - but it is now anticipated the site will not open until 2036 at the earliest

However, spiralling costs have seen the scheme now estimated to open 15 years later than planned.

Dame Meg Hillier, the committee chairwoman, said this completion date was now "clearly at risk" because work had stopped.

She said ministers had not yet decided where and when it would recommence.

A report by the National Audit Office, in February, found failings to establish the new site had "undermined" the UK's future resilience to dangerous diseases.

Dame Hillier said: "There appears to have been no accountability for the programme's estimated costs having risen by over 500% since 2015, the completion date being at best 15 years later than initially planned and other failures in the programme's management."

She added it was "not clear that UKHSA has the expertise" to complete the project and suggested setting up a new delivery agency to oversee it.

The committee said UKHSA and its predecessors had spent £406m on works so far.

In a letter to the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), Dame Hillier said UKHSA did not have "a full grasp" on the costs of the options it had.

In a previous statement, a UKHSA spokesperson said there was an "urgent need" to modernise and replace its highest containment facilities.

A spokesperson said: "We have always been focused on ensuring this project delivers value for the taxpayer."

The authority has been contacted for an updated comment.