Public Health England was created in 2012 by a Conservative government.

As an executive agency of the Department of Health, it has been under the control of the Secretary of State for Health since.

If it failed, then accountability lies with Government. https://twitter.com/rob_aldridge/status/1294747523517644801

In 2012 we wrote this piece warning of several problems with the way Public Health England was being set up. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(11)60241-9/fulltext

We warned that “placing Public Health England within the Department of Health sits uneasily with the claim to be “liberating the NHS…from political control”

We warned that “Independent public health advice is crucial to build public trust.” And used bovine spongiform encephalopathy as an example of why this had been a problem in the past.

We warned that “the decision to divide the public health function between the Department of Health and local government will fragment the workforce rather than create a “uniting force””

We warned that “although public health budgets transferred to local government are ring-fenced, it is already clear that cash-strapped local authorities might redesignate many of their existing activities as public health”

We warned of “practical difficulties such as those that arise from the substantial trading activities of the Health Protection Agency (eg, microbiological testing under contract that sustains highly specialist capacity)”

We warned that “scale of disruption risks loss of substantial expertise. Minimising such disruption is essential to maximise performance in this time of austerity, when a strong public health function is needed more than ever”

Not only did we warn about these problems, but we also set out how these problems could be tackled.

We set out this alternative back in 2011.

Public Health England has been under the direct control of the Secretary of State for health since.