The Community Health Councils Regulations 1996

Termination of membership

8.—(1) A member may resign at any time during the period for which he was appointed on giving notice in writing to the Secretary of State who shall, if he did not appoint the member, forthwith notify the relevant appointing body.

(2) The date on which a resignation by notice given pursuant to paragraph (1) is to take effect, shall be—

(a) where a date is specified in the notice as being that on which the resignation is to take effect, that date; and

(b) in any other case, the date on which the notice is received by the Secretary of State.

(3) If a member has failed to attend a meeting of the Council, or a committee of the Council, for a period of four months the Council shall report his absence to the relevant appointing body and (where the absence is not reported to him as a relevant reporting body) to the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of State shall, unless he is satisfied that—

(a) the absence was due to a reasonable cause; and

(b) the member will be able to attend meetings of the Council within such period as the Secretary of State considers reasonable,

• declare that his place on the Council has become vacant and on the making of such a declaration, that person shall cease to be a member.

(4) If the Secretary of State is of the opinion that it is not in the interests of the health service for a person to continue as a member, he may, subject to paragraph (5), terminate the member’s term of office.

(5) The Secretary of State shall not terminate a member’s term of office under paragraph (4) without having consulted the Council and, where he did not appoint the member, the relevant appointing body.

(6) A person who ceases to be a member by virtue of the operation of paragraph (3) and (4) shall be disqualified from reappointment as a member for a period of four years.

(7) In this regulation, “relevant appointing body” means, in relation to a member, the appointing body which appointed him.