Part II The Employment Medical Advisory Service
56 Functions of authority responsible for maintaining the service.
(1)
The authority for the time being responsible for maintaining the employment medical advisory service shall for the purpose of discharging that responsibility appoint persons to be employment medical advisers, and may for that purpose appoint such other officers and servants as it may determine, subject however to the requisite approval as to numbers, that is to say—
(a)
where that authority is the Secretary of State, the approval of the Minister for the Civil Service;
(b)
otherwise, the approval of the Secretary of State given with the consent of that Minister.
(2)
A person shall not be qualified to be appointed, or to be, an employment medical adviser unless he is a fully registered medical practitioner F1who holds a licence to practise.
(3)
The authority for the time being responsible for maintaining the said service may determine the cases and circumstances in which the employment medical advisers or any of them are to perform the duties or exercise the powers conferred on employment medical advisers by or under this Act or otherwise.
(4)
Where as a result of arrangements made in pursuance of section 55(2) the authority responsible for maintaining the said service changes, the change shall not invalidate any appointment previously made under subsection (1) above, and any such appointment subsisting when the change occurs shall thereafter have effect as if made by the new authority.