We need 'structures that are fit to cope' says Downing St amid fears for future of Public Health England

The Government will learn lessons from the coronavirus crisis and ensure that its "structures are fit to cope” Number 10 said on Wednesday amid hints that Public Health England is set to be scrapped.

Downing Street also suggested that further changes aimed at improving “public health capabilities” could be made amid speculation about the future of the agency responsible for key parts of the coronavirus response.

Public Health England (PHE) has been criticised over its handling of the outbreak, although Number 10 publicly insisted it had been “working hard to protect the country”.

Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said he would abolish the body, while key elements of public health work have already been given to new organisations established during the crisis.

That came after it emerged that Health ministers had warned PHE in a letter sent at the height of the outbreak that it would need to "adjust its organisation priorities" to cope with the Covid-19 outbreak.

The letter from health minister Jo Churchill to PHE's Duncan Selbie, PHE's chief executive, dated April 29 2020, said: "PHE will need to adjust its organisational activities and resourcing of priority activities in line with the scale of the required response to Covid-19, working closely with DHSC and other partners as part of the wider health and care system."

Speculation about the body was fuelled by Boris Johnson’s complaint during his speech on Tuesday about some parts of Government responding “sluggishly” to the Covid-19 outbreak, which has been viewed by some in Westminster as a reference to PHE.

Asked whether the criticism was directed at PHE, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Mr Johnson “didn’t single out anybody in particular” in his speech.

Asked if the body faced the axe, the spokesman said: “Public Health England are playing a key role in our response, working on important issues such as detection, surveillance, contact tracing and testing.

“They have been working hard to help protect the country and to provide insight in our efforts to beat the virus.” But the spokesman also pointed out that the coronavirus recovery road map published in May said “we must learn the right lessons from this crisis and act to ensure the Government’s structures are fit to cope”.

He added: “We have made changes to structure already, for instance we have set up from scratch NHS Test and Trace and the Joint Biosecurity Centre.

“Any future changes that we might make would be aimed at further strengthening our public health capabilities.”

PHE was widely criticised over the lack of coronavirus testing available during the initial stages of the outbreak, which contributed to the decision to abandon contact tracing in mid-March. Mr Duncan Smith told The Telegraph: “I would abolish PHE tomorrow.

"What this has shown is that if ministers are to take responsibility for things they must also have control, and they don’t have control over PHE.”

David Davis, the Tory Cabinet minister, added that PHE had been "over-controlling" and had got "every single task" wrong since the coronavirus outbreak began to spiral out of control.

Mr Davis told MailOnline: "They made a complete mess of the testing arrangements; they were over-centralised, over-controlling and massively reduced our ability to test."