Health Protection Agency

The National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC) located in South Mimms was merged with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

Its remit included infectious disease surveillance, providing specialist and reference microbiology and microbial epidemiology, coordinating the investigation and cause of national and uncommon outbreaks, helping advise government on the risks posed by various infections and responding to international health alerts.

In addition, both basic and applied research was undertaken to understand infectious diseases, and the group manufactured a number of healthcare products including vaccines and therapeutics.

The remit of the Centre included infectious disease surveillance, providing specialist and reference microbiology and microbial epidemiology, coordinating the investigation and cause of national and uncommon outbreaks, helping advise government on the risks posed by various infections and responding to international health alerts.

In addition, both basic and applied research were undertaken into understanding infectious diseases and the Centre manufactured a number of healthcare products, including vaccines and therapeutics.

Combining these services into one grouping was intended to facilitate and reinforce close team working among those with skills relevant to delivering effective and consistent responses to significant health protection threats.

It was a source of specialist advice and operational support, and it contributed actively to policy making and implementation in partnership with other HPA divisions and with the NHS, local authorities and other agencies.

At the heart of the work was the preparation, storage and worldwide distribution of World Health Organization international standards and reference materials to provide benchmarks for product quality.

In addition NIBSC provided testing services as the UK's Official Medicines Control Laboratory to ensure compliance with product specifications.