The Department of Health (DH) seeks to improve the health and well being of the population through improving standards of public health and driving forward change in the National Health Service and social care.

The Secretary of State is supported in Ministerial responsibilities by three Ministers of State and one Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State. The Minister of State for Public Health has responsibility for WHO, scientific development in health protection, a national programme of R&D including the R&D workforce and innovation, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) and the Food Standards Agency (FSA).

The Ministers are supported by the Chief Scientist (CS) who is also the Director General for Health Improvement and Protection Directorate, the Director General of Research and Development who is also the Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA), and the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO).

The CSO is responsible for building the capacity of the healthcare science workforce, and for developing healthcare scientists and their roles whilst raising their profile and recognition across the Department of Health.

The healthcare scientist workforce in the NHS, including the Health Protection Agency (HPA) and the National Blood and Tissue Authority, represent the largest group of scientists in a single employment sector in the UK. Their scientific knowledge and skill base stretches across some 50 scientific disciplines encompassing biology, genetics, physiology, physics and engineering.

This knowledge lies at the foundation of the profession's roles in:

• Providing diagnostic services, analysis and clinical interpretation, including international and national reference or investigative services
• Offering direct therapeutic service provision and support
• Introducing and disseminating technological and scientific advances into healthcare, and undertaking research, development and innovation
• Providing performance and quality assurance, risk management and clinical safety design and management in complex environments
• Teaching, training and providing a specialist consultancy and clinical advice service to other clinicians with respect to all of the key functions

The Director General of Research and Development is the CSA for the Department of Health and NHS and is responsible for implementation of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The goal of the NIHR is to create a UK health research system in which the NHS supports outstanding individuals, working in world class facilities, conducting leading edge research focused on the needs of patients and the public.