State Veterinary Service (Hansard, 10 January 2002)

§ Lord Whitty

In January 2001 the State Veterinary Service (SVS) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food comprised a Veterinary Policy Unit together with the SVS Field Service. Both were under the command of the Chief Veterinary Officer. The Veterinary Policy Unit, located at Page Street Headquarters in London and with outstationed wildlife units in the West Country, liaised with HQ units in Edinburgh and Cardiff. The SVS Field Service comprised HQ in Page Street, London and a network of five regional and 23 divisional animal health offices throughout Great Britain. The SVS became part of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) with the creation of Defra in June 2001. In July 2001 the National Scrapie Administrative Centre was launched at Worcester as part of the SVS Field Service.

As from 3 December 2001, the Chief Veterinary Officer, as Director General of Animal Health and Welfare, has taken command of the Veterinary Policy Unit (now known as the Veterinary Directorate), together with the Animal Health Group and the TSE Directorate. The SVS Field Service has transferred to the command of the Director General of Operations and Service Delivery. The structure of the SVS Field Service is currently the same as in July 2001 but a new animal health divisional office is being created at Newcastle. This will bring the total number of animal health divisions to 24.