Public health is the organised response by society to protect and promote health, and to prevent illness, injury and disability. The starting point for identifying public health issues, problems and priorities, and for designing and implementing interventions, is the population as a whole, or population sub-groups. 25 Suggestions made during consultations that the Partnership definition should include references to 'evaluating' and 'measuring or achieving outcomes' were not adopted, as these were considered to be implicitly present in the definition. 26