HIDD-79 Response Historic AI-assessed

Department of Health to review Circular 71, clarifying Major Incident declaration terms

Recommendation

The Department of Health shall review DHSS Circular 71 in consultation with emergency and medical services to reflect all lessons learned but in particular in relation to procedures for declaring a Major Incident. The Department of Health shall specifically require that the terms used to warn hospitals of a possible Major Incident, and subsequently to declare an actual Major Incident are sufficiently distinct to prevent any confusion between the two. The terms used shall exclude any colour.

Published Evidence Summary
The following publicly available evidence relates to this recommendation:
No specific, publicly available evidence detailing a review of DHSS Circular 71 by the Department of Health, or new procedures for declaring a Major Incident in consultation with emergency and medical services, has been identified from the provided official sources. The general search results on gov.uk do not offer specific details related to this recommendation.
How was this assessed?
Assessed by gemini-2.5-flash on 18 Mar 2026
Checked data held on this site (government responses, progress updates, independent evidence)
External sources searched: www.gov.uk, www.legislation.gov.uk, hansard.parliament.uk
Jurisdiction
UK-wide
Response
Historic

No government response recorded.

Source
Report Hidden Inquiry — Final Report 27 Sep 1989
Recommendation age 36.5 yrs
Last formal update No formal updates