AWERB Minutes October 2021

National Institute for Biological Standards and Control

Animal Welfare and Ethics Review Body

Minutes of a special meeting held on Tuesday 11 October 2021 at 2:30pm 

1.       

The AWERB committee had invited the PELH to this special committee meeting in order to discuss the impact of the transformation programme on animals and BSD staff with the PELH who is also the Chief Science, Research and Innovation Officer of the Agency. In addition, the Head of ABS was also invited to join the discussions.

The discussions were recorded.

3. Discussions with PELH

The AWERB committee members expressed their concerns about the transformation programme and requested the opinion of the PELH and Chief Science, Research and Innovation Officer on the expected negative impact of the transformation programme on animal work at NIBSC.

For details of the discussion, see the recordings or the transcript of the meeting. For details on the concerns that the AWERB committee expressed in connection with the Transformation programme also see the consultation feedback drawn up in response to the meeting on “identifying appropriate BSD staff numbers supporting animal work at NIBSC under the new structure”.

4. Action: Chair and AWERB committee to draft further consultation feedback on negative impact of reduced BSD staffing levels on animal work at NIBSC

The PELH strongly encouraged the AWERB committee to submit a further feedback document to be submitted as part of the Transformation consultation process. It was agreed that the consultation feedback document would be sent to the PELH so that he could confirm his support for the feedback,

The meeting concluded at 15:33 pm.

END

These Minutes have been viewed and approved by the Establishment Licence Holder (Director of NIBSC).

Signature: REDACTED

Date: 29^th March 2022