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The DHSS issued transitional guidance outlining the new, joint working arrangements, roles, and responsibilities arising from the National Health Service Reorganisation Act 1973.

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The guidance also advised local authorities to appoint a doctor to be known as the medical officer of environmental health as "proper officer".

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The public health focus shifted from clinical epidemiology, communicable disease control and medical administration to broader societal health issues like lifestyle and education.

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The Health Protection Agency was established.

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The number of public health physician consultants dropped to 405.

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The number of public health consultants declined by 17% and the number of non-clinical public health specialists increased by 39%.

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The position of MOH employed within local authorities was abolished at a time when the government considered that the "main infectious diseases which were once the major cause of death of people of working age have been virtually eliminated as health problems".

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Professor Brian Edwards suggested that the loss of the MOH was a grave strategic error and the public health voice was weakened by that reorganisation.

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Health authorities were advised to appoint both a director of public health and a consultant for communicable disease control, while also reinforcing hospital roles in infection control and empowering proper officers to conduct investigations.

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The CDSC was established within the PHLS in 1977 after the 1973 smallpox outbreak in London and subsequent Committee of Inquiry into the outbreak.

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After the CDSC assumed responsibility for national advice, assistance and coordination in communicable disease control from the CMOs of the DHSS and Welsh Office, the epidemiological role of PHLS increased from one of epidemiological intelligence to a greater involvement in active disease control.

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PHLS received limited additional funding of £40,000 per year to cover the costs of its new functions.

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In 1984, the CDSC merged with the PHLS Epidemiological Research Laboratory, expanding its functions to include research on vaccine-preventable diseases.

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The ERL was created to undertake the analysis and interpretation of centrally collected laboratory data.

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The Public Service Laboratory Act of 1960 transferred responsibility for PHLS from the Medical Research Council to a new PHLS board that was accountable to the Minister of Health.

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PHLS was linked with NHS hospital diagnostic laboratory services and provided advice and assistance to local public health officials, including a bacteriology and virology service.

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Between 1985 and 1992 the PHLS board included a deputy chief medical officer from the Department of Health and until 1989 a deputy chief medical officer from the Welsh Office.

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In the late 1970s, the management of the Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research at Porton Down (formerly known as the Microbiological Research Establishment) was transferred to PHLS.

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A weekly summary report of infections identified by the PHLS laboratories was published from about 1940. In the 1950s this grew to include reports from non-PHLS laboratories, which became the Communicable Disease Report from 1967. These reports provided epidemiological oversight of infectious diseases in England and Wales.

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The Central Public Health Laboratory was the headquarters of the Public Health Laboratory Service and housed specialist and reference laboratories which were organised into divisions focusing on critical areas.

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