The Act – Overview
3.The Act is in 10 Parts. The main provisions of the Act are as follows:
Part 1 – Public Health Responsibilities
	This Part sets out the duties of the Scottish Ministers, health boards and local authorities to continue to make provision to protect public health in Scotland. These are without prejudice to existing duties imposed on the Scottish Ministers and health boards in the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978. It defines “protecting public health” in terms of protecting the community, or any part of the community, from infectious diseases, contamination or other hazards that constitute a danger to human health. Health boards and local authorities are required to designate “competent persons” to undertake functions assigned to them under the Act and which require professional input at a particular level. The qualifications, training and other requirements for competent persons to be able to undertake these functions will be set out in regulations.
	A duty of co-operation is placed on health boards and local authorities in exercising the functions under the Act, and for them to plan, together, for public health protection.
	This Part also sets out the Scottish Ministers’ powers of intervention if those bodies fail to exercise functions in an acceptable manner, including power to direct other persons (or organisations) to undertake the functions, and to direct the allocation of resources between them.
Part 2 – Notifiable Diseases, Notifiable Organisms and Health Risk States
	This Part replaces the current statutory arrangements for the notification of infectious diseases and the voluntary reporting of organisms by NHS-related laboratories with a statutory notification system. Suspected or diagnosed infectious diseases and health risk states are to be notified by registered medical practitioners and diagnostic laboratories in Scotland that are focused on human infections are to notify organisms. The notifiable diseases and organisms are set out in schedule 1.
	This Part allows the Scottish Ministers to vary the list of notifiable diseases and organisms and all other aspects of notification by regulations. It also sets out the penalties for non-reporting.
Part 3 – Public Health Investigations
	This Part defines a “public health investigation” and sets out the powers available to investigators who may be appointed by the Scottish Ministers, a health board competent person, Health Protection Scotland (a division of the Common Services Agency for the Scottish Health Service), a local authority competent person or two or more of these bodies or persons acting together. The powers will be available only in defined circumstances and where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that those circumstances are likely to give rise to a significant risk to public health.
	This Part also makes provision about offences under this Part and the compensation arrangements for any loss or damage caused by an investigator or person authorised by an investigator in the course of an investigation.
Part 4 – Public Health Functions of Health Boards
	This Part replaces many of the powers currently available to local authorities and which relate directly to infected people and assigns them to health boards. It also confers new powers on health boards.
	Existing powers that are being transferred from local authorities to health boards include: the exclusion of persons from work and school (now extended to cover a wider range of settings); application to a sheriff for an order for a person to be medically examined; and the removal and detention in hospital of a person suffering from a serious infectious disease (now extended to include persons who are contaminated).
	New powers for health boards include the power to restrict persons’ activities in order to reduce the spread of contamination and infection; power to quarantine individuals; and power to require a person to be disinfected, disinfested or decontaminated, in defined circumstances, and where there is a significant risk to public health.
	With the exception of exclusion orders and restriction orders, all health board powers will be exercisable only where the health board has obtained an order from a sheriff. The procedures for applying for and granting orders contain safeguards with regard to personal freedom, include a right of appeal, restrictions on duration and regular reviews. It will be an offence to breach the terms of any order.
Part 5 – Public Health Functions of Local Authorities
	This Part contains powers which replace existing powers of local authorities to order a range of public health measures in relation to premises and things, including disinfection, disinfestation and decontamination, in order to prevent, or prevent the spread of, infectious disease or contamination.
Part 6 – Mortuaries etc.
	This Part places a duty on health boards to ensure mortuary provision, including post-mortem facilities, for hospital-related deaths; and on local authorities to ensure the provision of mortuary and post-mortem facilities for other deaths (including for Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS)-instructed post-mortem examinations).
	It also replaces provisions in the Public Health (Scotland) Act 1897 with regard to the handling of dead bodies in order to reduce the risk to public health with new provision.
Part 7 – International Travel
	This Part provides the Scottish Ministers with a power to make regulations to protect public health from risks arising from vehicles arriving in or leaving Scotland, including regulations to comply with International Health Regulations 2005.
Part 8 – Regulation of Provision of Sunbeds
	This Part regulates the use, sale and hire of sunbeds. It provides for offences, penalties and enforcement.
Part 9 – Statutory Nuisances
	This Part amends the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (“the 1990 Act”) for Scotland to constitute insect infestation, artificial light pollution, and nuisance associated with water on land as statutory nuisances for the purposes of Part III of the 1990 Act. It introduces a regulation-making power to amend the statutory nuisance regime in the future, and enables local authorities to offer a fixed penalty to persons who fail to comply with the requirements of an abatement notice served under section 80(1) of the 1990 Act.
	This Part also amends the Water Services etc. (Scotland) Act 2005 to remedy an unforeseen dis-application of the enforcement provisions in schedule 3 to the 1990 Act as regards sewerage nuisance.
Part 10 – General and Miscellaneous
	This Part contains general and miscellaneous provisions, including provision about information disclosure and penalties for offences under the Act. It sets out the procedures that will apply to the making of subordinate legislation. It also deals with the repeal of legislation which is superseded by this Act.