§ 9.55 a.m.
§ Mr. Geoffrey Pattie (Chertsey and Walton)I hope that the seriousness of the subject which we are now debating will compensate for the unusual hour, and I assure my hon. Friends that the situation to which I shall refer is so appalling that it does not require a long speech to bring home the facts. The condition of the State Veterinary Service merits urgent consideration at any hour of the day and I am grateful for the attendance of the Minister, who has attended for the discussion of two other subjects during the night.
I first became aware of the current difficulties of the State Veterinary Service because I am privileged to have the Central Veterinary Laboratory at Weybridge in my constituency. The laboratory enjoys a world-wide reputation for its excellent work.
I became aware first of the pay difficulties, and the long-drawn-out dispute over pay and this led me, in turn, to an awareness of the serious under-recruitment at the laboratory, which has been the subject of Questions tabled by me recently. It was one short step for me from that position to see the Central Veterinary Laboratory in the wider context of the severe difficulties of the State Veterinary Service.
As recently as last November it was stated in The Veterinary Record:
The British Veterinary Association is deeply concerned about the present position of the State Veterinary Service in terms of manpower, morale and recruitment. There are serious implications for the national interest in general and for the livestock industry in particular.Those of us who have studied this matter know that before the war pay in the service was about 40 per cent. above that in private practice, and everything was going well. But since the war the situation has altered radically and there have been reports by the Gowers Committee in 1954, the Plant Committee in 1962, and the Northumberland Committee in 1968, all of which have drawn attention to the serious under-recruitment to the State Veterinary Service, and to what the consequences would be.It may be worthwhile to remind the House of the role of the State Veterinary 386 Service, which is to control animal disease existing in this country, to guard against the introduction of exotic disease and to attend to animal welfare. But to this traditional work of preventing the spread of and, eradicating, diseases has been added various new tasks. There is, for example an increase in intensive methods in agriculture and therefore a need to ensure absence of cruelty in the way animals are reared. There is also a need to ensure that veterinary medicines are safe and efficient. Membership of the EEC has increased substantially the work load of the State Veterinary Service and there has also been an increase in animal movements around the world, which has meant better facilities at Heathrow Airport—which are well below standard—and the need for other improvements related to worldwide cattle movements.
Not only has there been an increase in the work load of the State Veterinary Service, but the nature of the work has also changed. For instance, highly qualified men now have to spend much of their time inspecting swill installations on pig farms and making various checks at local cattle markets. Eighty per cent. of their time is spent taking blood samples to eradicate brucellosis.
Before I am carried away on a wave of emotion, let us consider the facts. The House was told on 10th June this year that there were 139 vacancies in a complement of 690 in the State service. It has been suggested that veterinary surgeons are leaving the service at the rate of one a week. This means that in 10 years there will not be a State service at all. In 1973 there were just two recruits.
So the work load has increased, its nature has changed, pay scales have fallen behind those in private practice, with all its perquisites, veterinarians are called out on weekends and holidays, they are liable to be posted at short notice for unspecified periods to fight epidemics, there is no worthwhile career structure and within the Agricultural Development Advisory Service non-veterinarians take decisions over the career prospects of veterinarians. The last is a matter of great concern to veterinarians themselves. Last but not least is the anomalous situation that their pay is linked to the scientists' pay scales.
387 The first thing we must be clear about is that there is no shortage of vets. Nearly 300 are produced by the veterinary schools every year. Higher academic qualifications are needed to get into the schools than are required for medical schools. The clear inference is that there should be an extension of the provision of veterinary schools. The problem simply is emigration. British veterinary training seems to have become a passport to good living anywhere in the world but here. In 1961, there were 692 British registered veterinarians living overseas. By 1974 the figure had risen to 1,850. Many of them are now doing Government and university work in other countries. Private practice is the other great Mecca, and the State service, regrettably, is seen as the last resort.
Added to the serious shortage is the age profile of the State service, which gives no comfort at all. The average age is 55. The profession has become full of the veterinary equivalents of Dr. Cameron, when what we want are Dr. Finlays. The arduous nature of the work is no joke for a man in his late fifties or early sixties.
The implication of this situation is terrifying for the future of our agriculture, our livestock and our own health, because of the many animal-transmitted diseases such as rabies and psittacosis, from which there have been deaths recently. Three committees have warned of the consequences and still we drift on.
Why, oh why, does there have to be a national catastrophe before we wake up and do what needs to be done? There is little confidence in the State service that we could even contain an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease if it were of 1968 proportions. The Northumberland Committee warned of this six years ago. Our only defence against such an outbreak is crossed fingers and a prayer mat bearing the words, "Let's hope that it doesn't happen here."
Rabies is spreading from Poland at the average rate of about 30 kilometres per year. It is reckoned that within a few years it will have reached the Channel. We all know what the consequences will be for this country if that disease gets into the wild life here. The public are totally unaware of this danger. In defence terms no one could suggest that we were over- 388 prepared in 1940, but a state of preparedness then comparable to the State Veterinary Service today would be one aeroplane and four barrage balloons. This thin white-coated line will not be able to hold.
When that happens we shall have an inquiry, urgent action and the nation will echo to the sound of scores of doors being slammed after the horses have bolted. The farming industry is not getting the service it should be from the State Veterinary Service and it is not kicking up the stink that it should be. Farmers will soon begin to take notice if the brucellosis eradication scheme collapses, as well it might, and the possibility is that it will take until 1980 before we can have a clean bill of health on brucellosis. The implications of this for the livestock exporting industry are very serious. The EEC is bringing forward measures to suggest that we shall have to combat brucella by 1978.
There used to be a tremendous spirit of pride in the State Veterinary Service, but this is long gone. There is a resentment in the service that its senior officers are taking on without resisting all the extra tasks put on it by successive Governments.
There are five ways in which we can be constructive. First, we are producing the new vets; the input into the veterinary schools is acceptable. There is competition over places and 300 vets are coming through every year. We should therefore consider a mandatory period of service in this country, or possibly even within the State Veterinary Service. I do not see why we should train people at a cost of £20,000 so that they can immediately go abroad and join the State services in Canada, New Zealand or wherever. Many countries will consider that we are being soft and foolish on this as we are on many other things. The mandatory service could be for two or three years.
Secondly, there should be a cash programme to extend the number of places in the secondary schools. We do not have to build new schools, but I am sure that we could extend the number of places for vets in the schools. Thirdly, we should consider using an auxiliary staff to do many of the tasks which do not require such highly qualified veterinarians who have to be trained at a cost 389 of £20,000. We can do without highly trained people spending their time inspecting pig swill installations and so on.
There is an urgent need for a proper career structure in the service and to have veterinarians in charge of the service and taking decisions that affect other veterinarians. Fifthly—and I have left it to last not because it is least important but because it is not the most important—there is the question of pay, which must be got right. We must aim for parity with the private sector. At present the State sector is about £1,000 a year behind the private sector, and while this disparity continues we must not be surprised at the gross imbalance of recruitment between the two sides.
Nothing could be more urgent than the installation of a programme along the lines I have suggested. I am grateful to hon. Members for their indulgence and the time they have allowed me to bring forward this serious matter. We are already living on borrowed time.
§ 10.10 a.m.
§ Mr. John Ellis (Brigg and Scunthorpe)I apologise to the hon. Member for Chertsey and Walton (Mr. Pattie) for not having been here at the beginning of his speech. The whole House is indebted to him for raising the subject.
I had some Questions down to the Minister about the establishment of the field veterinary officers, how many there are in post and what the establishment is. The replies may be in the pipeline. I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister can tell us the numbers now, as well as telling us how many are being trained and what is the future for the service.
§ 10.11 a.m.
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mr. E. S. Bishop)With the leave of the House, may I say how much I appreciate the comments of the hon. Member for Chertsey and Walton (Mr. Pattie) and my hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Scunthorpe (Mr. Ellis).
The debate is important. I understand the constituency interests of the hon. Member for Chertsey and Walton, and appreciate the way in which he has persisted in raising the matter on various occasions. I shall deal briefly with the 390 situation affecting the Central Veterinary Laboratory, Weybridge, and the staffing there, which the hon. Gentleman has raised several times.
The present complement of research staff, comprising qualified veterinary surgeons and research officers without veterinary qualifications, is 90. On 1st July there were 13 vacancies. I believe that that ties up with the reply I gave the hon. Gentleman on 4th July. The hon. Gentleman has pursued the matter with some tenacity. The pressure he has put on the Ministry is quite justified, because of the vital importance of the service. The Ministry has had to undertake many extra tasks, and membership of the EEC adds to the responsibilities which we accept.
The vacancies among research staff must obviously affect the Laboratory's programme of work. But I am assured that all diagnostic and other services are being fully maintained as also are the more important parts of the research programme. Progress on some lines of research has been slowed down and some expansion of work—for example on Newcastle disease—has not been undertaken. As the hon. Gentleman suggests, this is unfortunate, and we are doing everything possible to effect an improvement, but it would be wrong to say that there is a "staff crisis" at the CVL. I do not think that the hon. Gentleman made that suggestion, but I believe that the Surrey Herald of 12th July made such comments.
We cannot consider the situation at the CVL, Weybridge, in isolation. We must examine the wider implications of the veterinary service, as the hon. Gentleman rightly did.
In addition to the CVL, Weybridge, the Ministry has veterinary laboratories at Lasswade and Shinfield, and there are 24 veterinary investigation centres in various parts of the country. This indicates the need for established and qualified personnel to run the services. The total complement of professional staff at these establishments is 207½ and there are currently 36½ vacancies. I have yet to meet the half! Some establishments are more affected by staff difficulties than others, and are finding it difficult to cope with the demands made upon them.
I do not wish to disguise the fact that we are far from satisfied with the present 391 staffing position of the State Veterinary Service, nor do we want to presume that the problem is new. It has been with us for some time, and particularly since the war. Of course, that is no excuse for letting the situation continue. Over the last decade there have been difficulties with pay and organisation that have affected recruitment, and the increasingly sophisticated needs of animal health have imposed a heavy burden upon our staff. Events such as the tragic outbreak of foot and mouth disease in 1967–68 have taken their toll of an ageing staff. The hon. Gentleman was right to make reference to the number of people over 50 who are getting on. Some of us may be in that category already.
We also recognise the crises or the problems which arise from time to time. I have fresh in my memory the events of last Friday when I was notified of the 10,000 pigs now being slaughtered as a result of swine vesicular disease. We recognise that there is a shortage of qualified staff to deal with emergencies. The current number of vacancies among the professional staff of the State Veterinary Service is 141 out of a total complement of 691. That may tie up with the hon. Gentleman's figures. Over 100 of the vacancies are in the field staff. I recognise that this is a serious situation. We are able to compensate to some extent by employing temporary veterinary inspectors on a daily basis and we make the maximum use of private practitioners. However, we do not like the present state of affairs and we are taking various measures to improve it. I shall be referring to some of the measures as I proceed.
I believe that we must take the position in perspective. The manpower situation in the profession as a whole was studied by the Departmental Committee which reported in 1964. It considered that the admissions to the veterinary colleges could be regarded as adequate to provide the numbers of veterinary surgeons likely to be needed up to 1974. For most of those 10 years the committee's assessment has been pretty well near the mark.
The current shortage of veterinary surgeons was estimated by the tribunal itself to be about 500. That is a comparatively recent development due particularly to the growth of small animal practice. This is another factor. The growth of population 392 of domestic animals—dogs in particular—has taken its toll on the resources that are so vitally necessary.
This reported shortage and the likely future demand for veterinarians, as well as the use made by the profession of its highly trained manpower, is being considered by a committee of inquiry under Sir Michael Swann's chairmanship. The hon. Gentleman will be pleased to know that the committee is expected to report before the end of the year. I am hoping that this will up-date in some ways some of the previous reports to which the hon. Gentleman made reference—for example, the Northumberland Report and the Plant Report. We should have an up-to-date assessment of the current situation.
Due to the increasing needs of the service in various ways there has been a significant expansion in the size of the profession. The output of veterinary graduates is running at about 240 a year and over the past five years the number of qualified veterinarians working in the profession in the United Kingdom has risen by about 670 or over 12 per cent. from approximately 5,400 in 1969 to 6,070 at the end of March of this year. A moderate increase in this rate of expansion can also be expected to result from proposals put forward by the universities to the University Grants Committee for the present quinquennium.
The hon. Gentleman made a reference quite rightly to pay. That, of course, is vital in many of our essential services. Pay is an important factor affecting recruitment. The pay of veterinary officers is linked with, and moves in step with, the pay of Civil Service scientists. This has been a matter which has been before the House and which has engaged the concern of both sides of the House for some time. Following the report of the Pay Board on pay, salary increases of the order of 12 per cent. have recently been announced for scientists with effect from 7th November 1973. The veterinary officers will receive similar increases, also back-dated, to November 1973. These improvements mean that the minimum of the scale for the recruitment grades of Veterinary Officers I and II has been increased respectively from £3,312 to £3,746 and from £2,616 to £2,917. A starting salary of over £4,000 may be paid to very exceptional candidates. In common with all civil servants, veterinary 393 officers receive additional cost of living supplements under the threshold arrangements.
The next point of importance after pay is the re-structuring of the service. Our basic aim is to improve job quality by increasing responsibility, particularly at the junior levels, and providing greater opportunities for specialisation. Sometimes people may be rather critical of the framework of the present structure within the Ministry in so far as they claim that it does not give chances of promotion and incentive which might be there and which would attract more recruits to try to get them.
Restructuring on these lines will necessarily be a long-term objective. However, we have already been able to approve a number of specialist posts at divisional veterinary officer level for new work, and we are considering others to match developments in the livestock industry. This should give veterinary officers and graduates outside the service some indication of the direction in which we are moving.
I turn now to the question of shortage of staff in the State Veterinary Service. I have already indicated the effects upon the Central Veterinary Library at Weybridge. The shortage of staff in the service means that there has to be a degree of selection in the type of work to be given priority and that some activities cannot receive as much attention as we would like.
The prevention and eradication of non-indigenous epidemic disease—foot-and-mouth disease, swine fever and so on—remain the prime consideration, and this must engage our attention for some time to come. This is why in recent months our measures to eradicate swine vesicular disease have continued to be a first call on our resources. The hon. Gentleman knows of the orders we have had to make in recent weeks for countering outbreaks in various counties of the South-West and elsewhere. So also, of course, have our precautions against importing disease into the country, either through meat or live animals, had to take high priority. Equally, first priority would have to be given to any other outbreak of a notifiable disease.
Of the wide range of other work for which the veterinary service is responsible, the brucellosis eradication programme is a major commitment, but here, although 394 steady progress continues to be made, we are not moving as fast as we had hoped. Other activities that do not rate as of over-riding importance have also had to be curtailed to a greater or lesser extent.
The hon. Gentleman's question on this point is well justified because this again is the price we pay for the shortage of the essential staff, and, of course, much more than that, there is the effect upon the economy when we have enormous losses and compensation to pay because of outbreaks of disease.
The State Veterinary Service has, of course, always looked to veterinary surgeons in private practice to carry out a large part of the routine disease control work. Private practitioners have also played an essential part in assisting the veterinary service to cope with epidemics, and we have confidence that this longstanding co-operation will continue in any future epidemic situation.
I appreciate the constructive ending of the hon. Gentleman's speech, when he put five points that we might consider. We shall take them all into account and will write to him about them.
What of remedial measures, pay and restructuring? They are all-important in bringing about an upturn in recruitment, and it also seems probable that the pressure of recruitment for private practice has lessened of late.
The reorganisation of ADAS, which includes the State Veterinary Service, is to be implemented from 1st September next. It has been generally welcomed amongst veterinary staff. The Department has other measures under consideration for improving recruitment and enhancing job satisfaction and hopes shortly to open discussion on them with staff representatives. The British Veterinary Association agreed on 24th April to recommence printing Civil Service advertisements for veterinarians in its Journal without adding its own reservations. Last week, when I met the President of the Association and his colleagues, we discussed this and other aspects.
The Department employs over 200 lay assistants in support of the veterinary field service. The hon. Gentleman said we should be selective and discriminating in the use of our skilled manpower by farming out less essential or less skilled 395 jobs to the less-qualified. Their number will be increased as appropriate, though there are limitations on the type of work they can perform. The Department also makes full use of vets in private practice—known as local veterinary inspectors. There are about 3,000 LVIs on the Ministry's list and their fees amount to about £5 million a year.
I should like to close with a few points about the steps we are taking in addition to those to which I have referred. Job satisfaction, of course, is very important. It is probably as important in some ways as pay itself. We have discussed this with the veterinary management, the staff representatives and the IPCS. The recommendations which we have come to include the following. We believe that there should be more responsibility for basic grade veterinary officers. We believe that there should be better jobs for divisional veterinary officers with bigger areas based on Ministry divisions and more staff, and more specialist posts. We believe that there should be an integration of the two sides of the service—the field and the investigational laboratory sides.
What have we done already? Three more specialist DVO posts have been created at headquarters for EEC work on poultry meat hygiene. More posts are likely to be needed soon. Two more posts have been upgraded to DRVO specialist, one for import-export work and one for notifiable diseases. Work in progress includes more basic restructuring, which is essentially a longer-term job, but preparatory work is well in hand to speed action when circumstances permit.
I feel that at this hour of the day I have given a fair indication of an awareness of the problem to which the hon. Gentleman has referred. I shall certainly consider his suggestions. I appreciate, as I am sure the Ministry does, the interest that the hon. Gentleman has shown. It will add a necessary spur to our endeavours to improve the service, to add to the recruitment and to ensure that the service provided from the Ministry is adequate for the demands placed upon it.