Doctors in England and Wales have a statutory duty to notify a 'Proper Officer' of the Local Authority of suspected cases of certain infectious diseases. The attending Registered Medical Practitioner (RMP), should fill out a notification certificate immediately on diagnosis of a suspected notifiable disease and should not wait for laboratory confirmation of the suspected infection or contamination before notification. The certificate should be sent to the Proper Officer within three days or verbally within 24 hours if the case is considered urgent.

The Proper Officers are required to pass on the entire notification to the HPA within three days of a case being notified, or within 24 hours for cases deemed urgent. Health Protection Units (HPU) are the primary recipient within the HPA of clinical notifications from Proper Officers. To contact your local HPU, use the postcode search or browse by region on the HPA homepage.

The Information Management & Technology Department within the HPA Centre for Infections (CfI) collate the returns at the national level, and publish analyses of local and national trends on a weekly basis.

• Day care and child minding (national standards)
  In October 2005, SureStart published an addendum to the national standards for under 8s day care and childminding.
  Added/updated: 2 September 2009