The National Patient Safety Agency (Establishment and Constitution) Amendment Order 2005

Transfer of officers, property and enforceability of rights and transfer of liabilities

5.  After article 6 of the principal Order (public meetings) add—

“Transfer of officers

7.— (1) —This paragraph applies in relation to an officer of the St George’s Healthcare National Health Service Trust(1) who on 31st March 2005 is wholly or mainly engaged in the performance of the functions of the Central Office for Research Ethics Committees(2)

(2) Any officer to whom paragraph (1) applies shall, on 1st April 2005, be transferred to the employment of the Agency.

(3) The contract of employment of an officer transferred under paragraph (2)—

(a) is not terminated by the transfer; and

(b) has effect from the time of the transfer as if originally made between the officer and the Agency.

(4) Without prejudice to paragraph (3)—

(a) all the rights, powers, duties and liabilities of the body from which the officer is transferred, under or in connection with its contract of employment with an officer transferred under paragraph (2), shall by virtue of this paragraph be transferred to the Agency; and

(b) anything done before the date of the transfer by or in relation to the body from which that officer is so transferred, in respect of the officer or his contract of employment, shall be deemed to have been done by or in relation to the Agency.

(5) Paragraphs (2) to (4) do not transfer an officer’s contract of employment, or the rights, powers, duties and liabilities under or in connection with it, if that officer has objected to the transfer to the Agency and has informed the St George’s Healthcare National Health Service Trust of that objection by 31st March 2005.

(6) Where an officer objected as mentioned in paragraph (5), his contract of employment with the St George’s Healthcare National Health Service Trust shall be terminated immediately before the date on which the transfer would occur, but he shall not be treated, for any purpose, as having been dismissed from the St George’s Healthcare National Health Service Trust.

(7) This article is without prejudice to any right of an officer to terminate his contract of employment if a substantial change is made to his detriment in his working conditions; but no such right shall arise by reason only that, under this article, the identity of his employer changes unless the officer shows that, in all the circumstances, the change is a significant change and is to his detriment.

Transfer of Property

8.   All property of the St George’s Healthcare National Health Service Trust identified as property transferring to the Agency in the St George’s Healthcare National Health Service Trust Schedule is transferred to the Agency on 1 April 2005.

Enforceability of rights and transfer of liabilities

9.— (1) Any right relating to the National Confidential Enquiries referred to in the Directions that was, immediately before 1st April 2005, enforceable by or against the Institute is transferred to the Agency and therefore shall, on or after that date, be enforceable by or against the Agency.

(2) All liabilities of the Institute relating to the exercise of those functions it was directed to exercise in relation to the National Confidential Enquiries in the Directions shall on 1st April 2005 be transferred to the Agency and are therefore enforceable against it.”.

(1)

Established by S.I. 1993/352.

(2)

The Central Office for Research Ethics Committees is a function of the Secretary of State for Health performed by St George’s Healthcare National Health Service Trust under an agreement signed on 2nd and 5th February 2001. A copy of the agreement is available from the Department of Health, Quarry House, Quarry Hill, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS2 7UE.