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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> United Kingdom Statutory Instruments >> The NHS Direct (Establishment and Constitution) Order 2004 No. 569 URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/legis/num_reg/2004/20040569.html

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Establishment of the Authority
     2. There is hereby established a Special Health Authority which shall be known as NHS Direct.

Functions of the Authority
     3.  - (1) Subject to and in accordance with such directions as the Secretary of State may give to the Authority[2], the Authority shall perform - 

(a) such functions in connection with the provision of health related information and advice; and

(b) such other functions,

as the Secretary of State may direct.

Constitution of the Authority
     4. The Authority shall consist of - 

(a) a chairman;

(b) 5 members who are not officers of the Authority; and

(c) 5 officers of the Authority including the persons who for the time being hold the office of Chief Executive, Director of Finance and Clinical Director of the Authority.

Remuneration of members
     5. The Authority is hereby specified for the purposes of paragraph 9(7)(b) of Schedule 5 to the Act (definition of "relevant authority" for the purposes of paying remuneration to members of certain Special Health Authorities).

Public meetings
     6. The Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960[3] shall apply to the Authority.

Transfer of rights and liabilities
     7. All rights and liabilities of a National Health Service trust or Primary Care Trust listed in Schedule 1 relating to NHS Direct services are transferred to the Authority and are therefore enforceable by or, as the case may be, against it.

Transfer of property
     8. All property of the National Health Service trusts and Primary Care Trusts listed in Schedule 1 identified as property transferring to the Authority in the document produced by the Department of Health and entitled "Schedule of property transferring from National Health Service trusts and Primary Care Trusts to NHS Direct on 1st April 2004" and dated 18th February 2004 is transferred to the Authority.

Transfer of officers
     9.  - (1) This paragraph applies to an officer of - 

(a) a National Health Service trust or Primary Care Trust listed in Schedule 1,

(b) a National Health Service trust listed in Schedule 2, or

(c) the Prescription Pricing Authority[4],

who on 31st March 2004 is wholly or mainly engaged in NHS Direct services and who was notified in a letter posted on or before 9th January 2004 that he was to be transferred to the Authority.

    (2) Any officer to whom paragraph (1) applies shall, on 1st April 2004, be transferred to the employment of the Authority.

    (3) The contract of employment of an officer transferred under paragraph (2) - 

(a) is not terminated by the transfer; and

(b) has effect from the time of the transfer as if originally made between the officer and the Authority.

    (4) Without prejudice to paragraph (3) - 

(a) all the rights, powers, duties and liabilities of the body from which an officer is transferred, under or in connection with its contract of employment with an officer transferred under paragraph (2), shall by virtue of this paragraph be transferred to the Authority; and

(b) anything done before the date of the transfer by or in relation to the body from which that officer is so transferred, in respect of the officer or his contract of employment, shall be deemed to have been done by or in relation to the Authority.

    (5) Paragraphs (2) to (4) do not transfer an officer's contract of employment, or the rights, powers, duties and liabilities under or in connection with it, if that officer objects to the transfer to the Authority and informs the body from which he would be transferred of that objection by 31st March 2004.

    (6) Where an officer objects as mentioned in paragraph (5), his contract of employment with the body from which he would be transferred shall be terminated immediately before the date on which the transfer would occur, but he shall not be treated, for any purpose, as having been dismissed from that body.

    (7) This article is without prejudice to any right of an officer to terminate his contract of employment if a substantial change is made to his detriment in his working conditions; but no such right shall arise by reason only that, under this article, the identity of his employer changes unless the officer shows that, in all the circumstances, the change is a significant change and is to his detriment.



Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Health


Rosie Winterton
Minister of State, Department of Health

28th February 2004

[2] See, in particular, sections 16D, 17 and 18 of the National Health Service Act 1977 (c. 49); section 16D was inserted by section 12(1) of the 1999 Act and amended by sections 1(3), 3(1) and (2) of, and paragraphs 1 and 6(a) of Schedule 1 to, the 2002 Act; section 17 was inserted by section 12(1) of the 1999 Act and amended by section 67(1) of, and paragraph 5(1) and (3) of Schedule 5 to, the 2001 Act and section 1(3) of, and paragraphs 1 and 7 of Schedule 1 to, the 2002 Act; section 18 was amended by sections 2(1), 5(1) and 3(8) of, and paragraph 9(b) and (c)(ii) of Schedule 1 and Schedule 3 to, the 1995 Act, section 12(3) and (4) of the 1999 Act and sections 1(3), 3(1), (5)(a) and (b) and 37(2) of, and paragraphs 1 and 9 of Schedule 1 and Part 1 of Schedule 9 to, the 2002 Act.back

[3] 1960 c. 67; see paragraph 1(g) of the Schedule to the Act, which was inserted by paragraph 91 of Schedule 1 to the 1995 Act.back

[4] The Prescription Pricing Authority is a Special Health Authority established under section 11 of the Act. See S.I. 1990/1718.back

[5] As amended by S.I. 2002/1690.back

[6] As amended by S.I. 2002/1297.back

  © Crown copyright 2004