Public Health England
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| Agency overview | |
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| Formed | 2013 |
| Preceding agency | |
| Superseding agency |
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| Jurisdiction | England |
| Headquarters | Wellington House, 133-155 Waterloo Road, London SE1 |
| Parent agency | Department of Health |
| Website | www.gov.uk/government/organisations/public-health-england |
Public Health England (PHE) is an executive agency of the Department of Health in the United Kingdom that began operating on 1 April 2013. Its formation came as a result of reorganisation of the National Health Service (NHS) in England outlined in the Health and Social Care Act 2012. It took on the role of the Health Protection Agency, the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse and a number of other health bodies.
PHE's mission is "to protect and improve the nation’s health and to address inequalities". It employs 5,000 staff (full-time equivalent), who are mostly scientists, researchers and public health professionals.
Initially, aside from back office functions such as personnel and finance or management functions such as strategy and programme management, PHE has the following divisions:
Duncan Selbie is the Chief Executive.
PHE took over the responsibility for Be Clear on Cancer campaigns after it was created in the Health and Social Care Act 2012. Campaigns have been run on Lung Cancer, Bowel Cancer, Oesophago-gastric and Kidney & Bladder Cancer.
PHE is also responsible for Change4Life and ACT FAST.
In January 2014 it launched a new campaign against smoking called Smokefree Health Harms on television and billboards across England.
Public Health England has been criticised for its underweighting of mental health within its overall resourcing and agenda; in 2011 the Royal College of Psychiatrists stated its concern that there appeared to be "few, or no, commitments or resources within either the Department of Health or Public Health England to take the public mental health agenda forward."
The agency was criticised by Professor Martin McKee, in January 2014, who said that continuing health inequalities among London boroughs was a scandal and claimed coalition reforms had left it unclear who was supposed to analyse health data and tackle the problems highlighted.
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