Health Protection (Notification) Regulations 2010: proposed amendments

This consultation seeks relevant stakeholder’s views on proposed additions to schedule 1 and 2 of the Health Protection (Notification) Regulations (HPNR) 2010 and amendments to diagnostic laboratory reporting requirements in England. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) will publish a response to this consultation in due course.

The HPNR (which apply to England only) place a statutory duty on registered medical practitioners to report suspected or known cases of notifiable infectious diseases, listed in schedule 1 of the regulations. They also require laboratories that test human samples to report any positive test results of notifiable causative agents, listed in schedule 2 of the regulations.

The government is seeking views from stakeholders on 3 proposals to update the regulations to meet current surveillance needs and support prompt and effective public health action:

• the potential addition of 7 infectious diseases to schedule 1
• the potential addition of 12 causative agents to schedule 2
• the potential expansion of current reporting requirements placed on diagnostic laboratories to also report negative and void test results, in addition to positive results already required