The Personal Community Charge (Hospital Patients) Order 1991

Statutory Instruments

1991 No. 739

COMMUNITY CHARGES, ENGLAND AND WALES

The Personal Community Charge (Hospital Patients) Order 1991

Made

18th March 1991

Laid before Parliament

26th March 1991

Coming into force

16th April 1991

The Secretary of State for the Environment, as respects England, and the Secretary of State for Wales, as respects Wales, in exercise of the powers conferred on them by paragraph 8(3) of Schedule 1 to the Local Government Finance Act 1988(1), and of all other powers enabling them in that behalf, hereby make the following Order:

Citation and commencement

1.  This Order may be cited as the Personal Community Charge (Hospital Patients) Order 1991 and shall come into force on 16th April 1991.

Definition of hospital

2.  For the definition of hospital currently effective for the purposes of paragraph 8 (hospital patients) of Schedule 1 to the Local Government Finance Act 1988(2) there is substituted the following definition–

  • ““Hospital” means–

    (a)

    a health service hospital within the meaning of the National Health Service Act 1977; and

    (b)

    a military, air-force or naval unit or establishment in England and Wales at or in which medical or surgical treatment is provided for persons subject–

    (i)

    by virtue of section 205 of the Army Act 1955, to military law;

    (ii)

    by virtue of section 205 of the Air Force Act 1955, to air-force law; or

    (iii)

    by virtue of section 111 of the Naval Discipline Act 1957, to that Act.”(3)

Michael Heseltine

Secretary of State for the Environment

14th March 1991

David Hunt

Secretary of State for Wales

18th March 1991

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

By virtue of section 2 of, and paragraph 8 of Schedule 1 to, the Local Government Finance Act 1988 certain patients and detainees in national health service hospitals are treated as exempt individuals for the purposes of the personal community charge.

The Secretary of State may substitute by Order another definition of hospital for that set out in paragraph 8(2) of Schedule 1 to the 1988 Act. The definition substituted by this Order adds, for the purposes of the exemption conferred by paragraph 8, certain military, air-force and naval hospitals.

(2)

See the definition of “hospital” in paragraph 8(2) of Schedule 1 to the 1988 Act.

(3)

The definition of health service hospital in section 128(1) of the National Health Service Act 1977 (c. 49) is amended by the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990 (c. 19), section 26(2)(c). Section 205 of the Army Act 1955 (c. 18) was amended by the Reserve Forces Act 1966 (c. 30), the Reserve Forces Act 1982 (c. 14) and S.I. 1964/488. Section 205 of the Air Force Act 1955 (c. 19) was amended by S.I. 1964/488. Section 111 of the Naval Discipline Act 1957 (c. 53) was amended by the Armed Forces Act 1976 (c. 52), the Reserve Forces Act 1980 (c. 9) and S.I. 1964/448.