§ Dr. CableTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what criteria are employed by his Department in designating diseases as notifiable diseases. [106754]
§ Yvette CooperThe precise term "notifiable disease" is defined in section 10 of the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 as being one of five specific diseases. Regulation 3 and Schedule 1 of the Public Health (Control of Disease) Regulations 1988 list further diseases "which are required to be notified". The first criterion which determines that a disease is required to be notified is that it is subject to the International Health Regulations. If not in those Regulations, the criteria would depend on expert assessment of the impact of the disease.
This statutory notification applies to registered medical practitioners and not to diagnostic laboratories, and to diseases rather than to causative organisms.