The functions of the Health Protection Agency and scientific advisory committees ought not to be lost when they are abolished, health minister Earl Howe has assured the House of Lords but he was unable to actually confirm this is the case as a white paper on public health is pending.
Several peers pressed the minister at question time on the loss of the HPA and he was quick to assure them that even though its doomed advisory committees presently publish their proceedings on their websites, transparency is one of the aims of the proposals.
The Government would continue to rely on scientific advisory committees and the fact that they would be in his department would not prevent them reporting as appropriate.
Baroness Pitkeathley pressed him to say how the prospect of leaching away of scientific expertise would be dealt with during the period of turbulence.
Lord Howe responded that the Agency's functions would be transferred to his department.
But asked by Lord Patel what HPA functions would not be carried out in the future, he sounded less certain.
"I have to defer an answer to that because we will shortly publish a white paper about our plans for the public health service," he said.
"Following that the public and interested professionals will be invited to feed in their views on exactly how that service should be configured."
He said the decision to move HPA functions into his department meant no reflection on the quality of its work but meant that the health secretary would take personal responsibility for public health.
"That should give everybody confidence that public health is high on the Government's agenda," he said.
"When the public health service is formed, it will bring together key professionals who are involved in planning, advice, surveillance and strategy making from national to local level. I do not see this as a dilution of the quality of public health work in this country."
