To carry out its missions, the National Public Health Agency :
1° Identifies, gathers, analyses, updates and disseminates information, data and knowledge about the state of health of populations and the health risks threatening them, their causes and trends. To this end, it creates information systems enabling it to access scientific, health, demographic, behavioural, social, climatic, environmental, statistical, industrial and commercial data as quickly as possible, particularly in terms of determinants, morbidity and mortality;
2° Jointly with the Institut National du Cancer, and as part of their respective missions, oversees and finances cancer registries;
3° Coordinates surveillance, studies and expertise in the fight against and prevention of healthcare-associated infections, particularly nosocomial infections, and antibiotic resistance;
4° Detects risk factors or threats likely to modify or alter the health of the population or some of its components. To this end, it develops surveillance and warning systems to enable the public authorities to intervene as quickly as possible in the event of a health threat and to manage health crises;
5° Studies, for each type of risk, the state of health of the most vulnerable or threatened populations and contributes to the evaluation of social and territorial inequalities in health and to the production of health indicators necessary for the development and implementation of public health policies;
6° Contributes to the preparation and evaluation of the regional health projects referred to in Article L. 1434-1 and to the development of programmes or actions to combat social and territorial inequalities in health, particularly in favour of vulnerable populations;
7° Implements, on behalf of the State and its public establishments, the public health programmes provided for in article L. 1411-6;
8° Participates in the development of health impact assessment of public policies, in particular by developing methods and tools;
9° Provides expertise and support in the fields of health promotion, prevention and health education;
10° Designs, produces, evaluates and, where appropriate, tests methods, strategies and actions for health promotion, prevention and health education, as well as information and intervention media, in particular national communication campaigns and prevention systems using remote assistance. It ensures that health promotion, prevention and health education programmes are accessible to people with disabilities;
11° Establishes training programmes in health education;
12° Contributes to the development of public health skills and practices among health professionals and to the transfer of knowledge necessary for the development of health promotion, prevention and health education throughout France;
13° Contributes to the preparation and management of crisis situations and the implementation of plans to respond to health threats, alerts and crises, in particular by providing the State with logistical expertise and mobilising the resources at its disposal;
14° Carries out all the operations required to recruit, train, mobilise, assign and compensate health reservists;
15° Exercises a health threat alert function. It is responsible for evaluating signals likely to reveal a serious or national health threat to human health and, to this end, carries out investigations, where necessary, in conjunction with the regional health agencies and the national health security agencies;
16° Alert the health authorities without delay in the event of a threat to public health and propose to the competent authorities any measure likely to protect public health;
17° Organises public hearings on public health issues;
18° Contributes to information, training and the dissemination of scientific and technical documentation and to public debate;
19° Supports or carries out training, studies, research and assessments related to its missions, or participates in such actions;
20° Participates, within the framework of its missions, in international and European actions and bodies, in particular international public health networks, and represents France in these, at the request of the Government.
The Agency may ask the Ministers concerned to call in agents authorised to monitor the application of legislative and regulatory provisions designed to protect human health.
The Agency is authorised to use the name “Santé Publique France”.