National Health Service Act 1977

Part IIIE+W+S Supplementary Provisions

Corporate statusE+W+S

8Each Regional Health Authority, . . . F1, [F2District Health Authority], special health authority and Family Practitioner Committee (hereinafter in this Schedule referred to severally as “an authority”) shall be a body corporate.

Textual Amendments

Pay and allowancesE+W+S

9(1)The Secretary of State may pay to the chairman of an authority [F3and to any member of a relevant authority who is appointed by the Secretary of State or a Regional Health Authority] . . . F4 such remuneration as he may determine with the approval of [F5the Treasury].

(2)The Secretary of State may provide as he may determine with the approval of [F6the Treasury] for the payment of a pension, allowance or gratuity to or in respect of the chairman of an authority . . . F4.

(3)Where a person ceases to be chairman of an authority . . . F4, and it appears to the Secretary of State that there are special circumstances which make it right for that person to receive compensation, the Secretary of State may make to him a payment of such amount as the Secretary of State may determine with the approval of [F7the Treasury].

(4)The Secretary of State may pay to a member of an authority, or of a committee or sub-committee of an authority, such travelling and other allowances (including attendance allowance or compensation for the loss of remunerative time) as he may determine with the approval of [F8the Treasury].

(5)Allowances shall not be paid in pursuance of sub-paragraph (4) above except in connection with the exercise, in such circumstances as the Secretary of State may determine with the approval of [F8the Treasury], of such functions as he may so determine.

(6)Payments under this paragraph shall be made at such times, and in such manner and subject to such conditions, as the Secretary of State may determine with the approval of [F9the Treasury].

[F10(7)In sub-paragraph (1) above “relevant authority” means—

(a)a Regional Health Authority, a District Health Authority or a Family Health Services Authority; or

(b)any special health authority which is specified in Schedule 1 to the Authorities for London Post-Graduate Teaching Hospitals (Establishment and Constitution) Order M11982, in the Board of Governors of the Eastman Dental Hospital (Establishment and Constitution) Order M21984 or in any other provision of an order under this Act which specifies an authority for the purposes of this sub-paragraph.]

Textual Amendments

F5Words substituted by virtue of S.I. 1981/1670, arts. 2(2), 3(5)

F6Words substituted by virtue of S.I. 1981/1670, arts. 2(1)(c), 3(5)

F7Words substituted by virtue of S.I. 1981/1670, arts. 2(1)(d), 3(5)

F8Words substituted by virtue of S.I. 1981/1670, arts. 2(1)(d)(2), 3(5)

F9Words substituted by virtue of S.I. 1981/1670, arts 2(1)(2), 3(5)

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

Marginal Citations

StaffE+W+S

10[F11(1)Subject to and in accordance with regulations and such directions as may be given by the Secretary of State, an authority . . . F12 may employ such officers as it may determine at such remuneration and on such conditions of service as it may determine; and regulations and directions under] this sub-paragraph may contain provision—

(a)with respect to the qualifications of persons who may be employed as officers of an authority;

(b)requiring an authority to employ, for the purpose of performing prescribed functions of the authority or any other body, officers having prescribed qualifications or experience; and

(c)as to the manner in which any officers of an authority are to be appointed.

[F13(1A)Regulations or directions under sub-paragraph (1) above may provide for approvals or determinations to have effect from a date specified in them [F14and a direction under that sub-paragraph may relate to a particular officer or class of officer specified in the direction].

(1B)The date may be before or after the date of giving the approvals or making the determinations but may not be before if it would be to the detriment of the officers to whom the approvals or determinations relate.]

(2)Regulations may provide for the transfer of officers from one authority to another . . . F15, and for arrangements under which the services of an officer of an authority are placed at the disposal of another authority or a local authority.

[F16(2A)Where the registration of a dental practitioner in the dentists register is suspended—

(a)by an order under [F17section 32 of the M3Dentists Act 1984] (interim suspension); or

(b)by a direction or [F17an order of the Health Committee under] that Act (health cases),

the suspension shall not terminate any contract of employment made between him and an authority but a person whose registration is suspended under that Part of that Act shall not perform any duties under a contract made between him and an authority which involves the practice of dentistry within the meaning of [F17the M4Dentists Act 1984.]]

(3)Directions may be given—

(a)by the Secretary of State to an authority to place services of any of its officers at the disposal of another authority,

(b)subject to any directions given by the Secretary of State in pursuance of this sub-paragraph, by a Regional Health Authority to an Area [F18or District] Health Authority of which the area [F18or district] is included in its region to place services of any of its officers at the disposal of another such Area [F18or District] Health Authority,

(c)by the Secretary of State to any authority . . . F19 to employ as an officer of the authority any person who is or was employed by another authority and is specified in the direction,

(d)by a Regional Health Authority to an Area [F18or District] Health Authority of which the area [F18or district] is included in its region to employ as an officer of the Area [F18or District] Health Authority any person who is or was employed by an authority other than the Area [F18or District] Health Authority and is specified in the direction,

and it shall be the duty of an authority to which directions are given in pursuance of this sub-paragraph to comply with the directions.

(4)Regulations made in pursuance of this paragraph shall not require that all consultants employed by an authority are to be so employed whole-time.

Textual Amendments

Marginal Citations

11(1)It shall be the duty of the Secretary of State, before he makes regulations in pursuance of paragraph 10 above, to consult such bodies as he may recognise as representing persons who, in his opinion, are likely to be affected by the regulations.

(2)Subject to sub-paragraph (3) below, it is the Secretary of State’s duty, or, as the case may be, a Regional Health Authority’s, before he or the Authority gives directions to an authority in pursuance of sub-paragraph (3) of paragraph 10 above in respect of any officer of an authority—

(a)to consult the officer about the directions; or

(b)to satisfy himself or itself that the authority of which he is an officer has consulted the officer about the placing or employment in question; or

(c)to consult, except in the case of a direction in pursuance of paragraph (c) or paragraph (d) of paragraph 10(3), with respect to the directions such body as he or the Authority may recognise as representing the officer.

(3)If the Secretary of State or Regional Health Authority—

(a)considers it necessary to give directions in pursuance of paragraph (a) or paragraph (b) of paragraph 10(3) for the purpose of dealing temporarily with an emergency, and

(b)has previously consulted bodies recognised by him or the Authority as representing the relevant officers about the giving of directions for that purpose,

the Secretary of State or the Authority shall be entitled to disregard sub-paragraph (2) above in relation to the directions.

MiscellaneousE+W+S

12Provision may be made by regulations as to—

(a)the appointment and tenure of office of the chairman [F20vice-chairman] and members of an authority [F21and any members of a committee or sub-committee of an authority who are not members of the authority];

[F22(aa)the circumstances in which a member of an authority who is (or is to be regarded as) an officer of the authority may be suspended from performing his functions as a member]

(b)the appointment [F23and constitution] of, and the exercise of functions by, committees and sub-committees of an authority (including joint committees and joint sub-committees of two or more authorities, and committees and sub-committees consisting wholly or partly of persons who are not members of the authority in question); and

(c)the procedure of an authority, and of such committees and sub-committees as are mentioned in sub-paragraph (b) above.

Textual Amendments

F20Word inserted by S.I. 1985/39, art. 7(22)(b)

[F2412ARegulations made by virtue of this Schedule or Schedule 1 to the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990 may make provision (including provision modifying those Schedules) to deal with cases where the post of chief officer or any other officer of an authority is held jointly by two or more persons or where the functions of such an officer are in any other way performed by more than one person.]

Textual Amendments

13E+W+SAn authority may pay subscriptions, of such amounts as the Secretary of State may approve, to the funds of such bodies as he may approve.

14E+W+SThe proceedings of an authority shall not be invalidated by any vacancy in its membership, or by any defect in a member’s appointment.

15(1)An authority shall, notwithstanding that it is exercising any function on behalf of the Secretary of State or another authority, be entitled to enforce any rights acquired in the exercise of that function, and be liable in respect of any liabilities incurred (including liabilities in tort) in the exercise of that function, in all respects as if it were acting as a principal.

Proceedings for the enforcement of such rights and liabilities shall be brought, and brought only, by or, as the case may be, against the authority in question in its own name.

[F25(2)An authority shall not be entitled to claim in any proceedings any privilege of the Crown in respect of the discovery or production of documents.

This sub-paragraph shall not prejudice any right of the Crown to withhold or procure the withholding from production of any document on the ground that its disclosure would be contrary to the public interest.]

(3)The Secretary of State may by order provide—

(a)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 M5National Health Service Act 1946 immediately before 1st April 1974, and

(b)that 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 health authority specified in the order as if the health 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.

A statutory instrument containing only an order made by virtue of this subparagraph shall be laid before Parliament after being made.

Textual Amendments

Marginal Citations

16E+W+SProvision may be made by regulations with respect to the recording of information by an authority, and the furnishing of information by an authority to the Secretary of State or another authority.