National Health Service Reorganisation Act 1973

Supplemental

53 Acquisition and use of land and other property

(1) In section 58(1) of the principal Act (which enables the Secretary of State to acquire by agreement or compulsorily any land required by him for the purposes of that Act), for the words " this Act" there shall be substituted the words " the National Health Service Acts 1946 to 1973 " and for the words " at any hospital vested in the Minister " there shall be substituted the words " for any purposes of those Acts " ; and the Secretary of State may acquire any property, other than land, required by him for the purposes of the Health Service Acts.

(2) Section 128 of the [1971 c. 78.] Town and Country Planning Act 1971 (which among other things provides that where a Minister acquires consecrated land or land comprised in a burial ground compulsorily he may, subject to the safeguards provided by that section, use the land for the purpose for which he acquired it notwithstanding any obligation or restriction imposed by ecclesiastical law or anything in any enactment relating to burial grounds) shall apply to consecrated land and land comprised in a burial ground within the meaning of that section which is held by the Secretary of State for any of the purposes of the health service and has not been acquired by him as mentioned in subsection (1) of that section as if the land had been so acquired for those purposes.

(3) The Secretary of State may use, for the purposes of any of the functions conferred on him by the Health Service Acts, any property belonging to him by virtue of any of those Acts; and it is hereby declared that the Secretary of State has power to maintain all such property.

54 General ancillary provisions

(1) If the Secretary of State considers that by reason of an emergency it is necessary, in order to ensure that a service falling to be provided in pursuance of the Health Service Acts is provided, to direct that during a period specified in the directions a function conferred on any body or person by virtue of those Acts shall to the exclusion of or concurrently with that body or person be performed by another body or person, he may give directions accordingly and it shall be the duty of the bodies or persons in question to comply with the directions; and the powers conferred on the Secretary of State by this subsection are in addition to any other powers exercisable by him.

(2) The Secretary of State may by order make such incidental, supplemental, transitional or consequential provision (including provision making modifications of enactments) as he considers appropriate for any of the purposes of this Act or in consequence of or for giving full effect to any provision of this Act; and nothing in the following subsection or any other provision of this Act shall be construed as prejudicing the generality of the power conferred by this subsection.

(3) An order made by virtue of the preceding subsection may include provision—

(a) for any thing duly done by a body in the exercise of functions which by virtue of this Act become functions of another body to be deemed to have been duly done by the other body; and

(b) without prejudice to the generality of the preceding paragraph, for any instrument, in so far as it was made in the exercise of such functions, to continue in force until varied or revoked by the other body.

(4) In so far as—

(a) any apportionment, agreement, order or regulation made by virtue of an enactment repealed by this Act; or

(b) any approval, consent, direction or notice given by virtue of such an enactment; or

(c) any proceedings begun or thing done by virtue of such an enactment,

could, if a corresponding enactment which is contained in this Act had been in force at the relevant time, have been made, given, begun or done by virtue of the corresponding enactment, it shall, if effective immediately before the relevant corresponding enactment comes into force, continue to have effect thereafter as if made, given, begun or done by virtue of that corresponding enactment.

(5) The Secretary of State may by order provide that any right which a Regional Hospital Board, a Board of Governors or a Hospital Management Committee was entitled to enforce by virtue of section 13 of the principal Act immediately before the appointed day and any liability in respect of which such a board or committee was liable by virtue of that section immediately before that day shall, on and after that day, be enforceable by or as the case may be against a Regional Health Authority, Area Health Authority or special health authority specified in the order as if the authority so specified were concerned as a principal with the matter in question and did not exercise functions on behalf of the Secretary of State.

55 Interpretation etc.

(1) Except where the contrary intention appears, in this Act the following expressions have the following meanings—

• " the appointed day " means such day as the Secretary of State may by order appoint;

• " Board of Governors " means a body constituted in pursuance of section 11 of the principal Act as the Board of Governors of a teaching hospital;

• " functions " includes powers and duties ;

• " the health service " means the health service established in pursuance of section 1 of the principal Act;

• " the Health Service Acts " means the National Health Service Acts 1946 to 1968 and this Act;

• " local health authority " includes a joint board constituted in pursuance of section 19 of the principal Act and a body exercising delegated functions of such an authority in pursuance of section 46 of the [1958 c. 55.] Local Government Act 1958;

• " modifications " includes additions, omissions and amendments;

• " prescribed " means prescribed by regulations;

• " preserved Board " has the meaning assigned to it by section 15(6) of this Act;

• " the principal Act " means the [1946 c. 81.] National Health Service Act 1946:

• " regulations " means, subject to subsection (2) of the following section, regulations made by the Secretary of State;

• " special hospital " has the meaning assigned to it by section 40(1) of this Act ; and

• " Special Trustees " has the meaning assigned to it by section 29(1) of this Act;

and any other expression to which a meaning is assigned by Part IV or section 79(1) of the principal Act has that meaning in this Act.

(2) Section 269 of the [1972 c. 70.] Local Government Act 1972 (which relates to the meaning of "England" and "Wales" in Acts passed after 1st April 1974) shall apply to this Act as if this Act had been passed after that date; and it is hereby declared that in this Act " property " includes land.

(3) Any reference in this Act to any enactment is a reference to it as amended or applied by or under any other enactment including this Act.

56 Orders and regulations etc.

(1) Any power to make orders or regulations conferred by this Act shall be exercisable by statutory instrument; and

(a) a statutory instrument made by virtue of this subsection, except an instrument containing only such orders as are mentioned in the following paragraph, or by virtue of section 34 (1)(h) or (6) of this Act or subsection (6) of the following section shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament;

(b) a statutory instrument containing only orders made by virtue of section 14(2), 24(2) or (3) or 54 of this Act or orders appointing a day in pursuance of this Act shall be laid before Parliament after being made.

(2) Any power to make regulations conferred on the Secretary of State by this Act shall, if the Treasury so directs, be exercisable by the Treasury and the Secretary of State acting jointly.

(3) Any power to make an order conferred by this Act, except sections 15(2)(d), 23(2) and 24(2) and (3), includes power to vary or revoke the order by a subsequent order made in the exercise of that power; but provisions of an order which appoint a day or provide for an enactment to come into force on a specified day shall not by virtue of this subsection be revoked or varied on or after that day.

(4) Any power conferred by the Health Service Acts or the [1963 c. 13.] Nursing Homes Act 1963 to make orders, regulations or schemes, and any power conferred by section 7 of this Act to give directions by an instrument in writing, may unless the contrary intention appears be exercised—

(a) either in relation to all cases to which the power extends, or in relation to all those cases subject to specified exceptions, or in relation to any specified cases or classes of case; and

(b) so as to make, as respects the cases in relation to which it is exercised.—

(i) the full provision to which the power extends or any less provision (whether by way of exception or otherwise);

(ii) the same provision for all cases in relation to which the power is exercised, or different provision for different cases or different classes of case, or different provision as respects the same case or class of case for different purposes of those Acts or that section;

(iii) any such provision either unconditionally or subject to any specified condition,

and includes power to make such incidental or supplemental provision in the orders, regulations, schemes or directions as the persons making or giving them consider appropriate.

(5) Any directions given in pursuance of any provision of this Act other than section 7 may be varied or revoked by subsequent directions given in pursuance of that provision.

57 Minor and consequential amendments, and repeals

(1) The enactments mentioned in Schedule 4 to this Act shall have effect subject to the amendments specified in that Schedule.

(2) The enactments and Order in Council mentioned in the first and second columns of Schedule 5 to this Act are hereby repealed to the extent specified in the third column of that Schedule.

(3) An order bringing any provision of the said Schedule 4 or Schedule 5 into force in pursuance of subsection (3) of the following section may, without prejudice to the generality of that subsection or subsection (4) of the preceding section, provide that the enactment or Order in Council amended or repealed by that provision shall, in such cases and for such periods as are specified in the order, continue to have effect as if the provision were not in force.

(4) An order bringing any provision of the said Schedule 5 into force as mentioned in the preceding subsection may, without prejudice as therein mentioned, provide that any orders, regulations or other instruments in force by virtue of that provision shall continue in force; and an instrument continued in force in pursuance of this subsection may be varied or revoked by regulations.

(5) The Secretary of State may by order repeal or amend any provision of any local Act passed before this Act (including an Act confirming a provisional order) or of any order or other instrument made under an Act so passed if it appears to him that the provision is inconsistent with, or has become unnecessary or requires alteration in consequence of, any provision of this Act or corresponds to any provision repealed by this Act.

(6) Her Majesty may by Order in Council make such modifications of the Health Service Acts as She considers appropriate in connection with the consolidation of those Acts.

58 Citation, commencement and extent

(1) This Act may be cited as the National Health Service Reorganisation Act 1973, and—

(a) this Act and the National Health Service Acts 1946 to 1968 may be cited together as the National Health Service Acts 1946 to 1973 ; and

(b) this Act so far as it extends to Scotland and the National Health Service (Scotland) Acts 1947 to 1972 may be cited together as the National Health Service (Scotland) Acts 1947 to 1973.

(2) The following provisions of this Act shall come into force on the passing of this Act, namely sections 1, 5 to 10, 14 to 21, 23 to 26, 29, 30, 41 (so far as it is applied by sections 16 and 18), 44, 47 to 49, 51 to 57 and this section, Schedules 1 and 2, paragraphs 22, 79, 133, 141, 151 and 152 of Schedule 4 and the entry in Schedule 5 relating to section 36(3)(c) of the principal Act.

(3) The provisions of this Act which do not come into force in pursuance of the preceeding subsection shall come into force on such day as the Secretary of State may by order appoint; and, without prejudice to the generality of section 56(4) of this Act, different days may be appointed in pursuance of this subsection for different provisions of this Act and for different purposes of the same provision of this Act.

(4) The Secretary of State may by order provide that this Act shall extend to the Isles of Scilly with such modifications, if any, as are specified in the order; and except as provided in pursuance of this subsection this Act shall not extend to the Isles of Scilly.

(5) The following provisions only of this Act shall extend to Scotland, namely, this subsection and subsections (1) to (3) of this section, sections 32(4) to (7), 36, 37(5), section 39(1) so far as it relates to those sections, sections 50, 51 and 57, paragraphs 41, 42, 43, 49, 58(2), 59(1), 67, 77 to 82, 96, 102, 104, 106, 109, 123, 128, 130, 133 to 135 and 138 to 150 of Schedule 4, the entries in Schedule 5 relating to the [1947 c. 27.] National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1947, the [1957 c. 28.] Dentists Act 1957, the [1958 c. 32.] Opticians Act 1958, the [1960 c. 34.] Radioactive Substances Act 1960, the [1962 c. 33.] Health Visiting and Social Working Training Act 1962, the [1965 c. 62.] Redundancy Payments Act 1965, (excluding the reference to paragraph 6), the [1966 c. 20.] Ministry of Social Security Act 1966 and the [1972 c. 58.] National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1972, and section 56 so far as it relates to subsection (3) of this section, sections 32(6) and 50 and paragraphs 138 and 139 of Schedule 4.

(6) The following provisions only of this Act shall extend to Northern Ireland, namely, this subsection and subsections (1) to (3) of this section, sections 36 and 37(5), section 39(1) so far as it relates to those sections, section 57, paragraphs 40, 69, 79 to 82, 96, 102, 104, 109, 128, 130, 134, 146 and 148 of Schedule 4 and the entries in Schedule 5 relating to the [1947 c. 19.] Polish Resettlement Act 1947, the [1957 c. 28.] Dentists Act 1957, the [1958 c. 32.] Opticians Act 1958, the [1960 c. 34.] Radioactive Substances Act 1960, the [1962 c. 33.] Health Visiting and Social Work (Training) Act 1962 and the Order in Council of 1972.