Find out about changes to our services and Christmas opening times on our Festive information page. To find out when your bin will be collected over the festive period, visit Changes to County Durham bin collections at Christmas.

Due to maintenance, the following systems will be unavailable from 11.45am on Tuesday 24 December until 8.00am on Thursday 2 January: our online Council Tax, business rates and housing benefit services, and our welfare assistance form. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Protecting the health of the public

Health protection is a term we use to describe the range of actions carried out by our public health service to protect residents in our county. Health protection covers:

planning, prevention and management of infectious diseases
controlling outbreaks
vaccination and immunisations
population screening programmes
preparing and planning for public health emergencies

Health protection is a joint responsibility across various bodies including councils, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), NHS England and Integrated Care Board.

Controlling outbreaks in County Durham

Vaccination and immunisations

Antibiotic resistance

Population Screening Programme

Preparation and planning

The Circuit - the national defibrillator network