The Act – Overview Quarantine Section 39 Application to have person quarantined
74.This section deals with applications to the sheriff for an order to require a person to be quarantined in the person’s home or other setting, other than a hospital. A health board may make such an application where it knows or suspects that a person in its area has an infectious disease, has been exposed to an organism which causes such a disease, is contaminated or has been exposed to a contaminant. Applications can only be made where there is a significant risk to public health and it is necessary to avoid or minimise that risk for that person to be quarantined.
75.Subsection (3) sets out that the application must specify: the person to whom the order will apply; why the board considers it necessary for the person to be quarantined; the place in which the person is to be quarantined; the steps (if any) in section 46(2) which the board considers it is necessary to take in relation to the person; the conditions (if any) which are to be applied, that an explanation has been given under section 31 (or if no explanation was given, the reason why); and any responses made to the explanation. The application must be accompanied by a certificate, signed by the health board competent person, indicating satisfaction that the criteria for the making of the application have been met.