The NHS Direct (Establishment and Constitution) Order 2004

• Citation: S.I. 2004/569
• Sections: 9

Section 1 Citation, commencement, application and interpretation

(1) This Order may be cited as the NHS Direct (Establishment and Constitution) Order 2004 and shall come into force on 1st April 2004.

(2) This Order applies to England only.

(3) In this Order—

“ the Act ” means the National Health Service Act 1977;

“the Authority” means the NHS Direct Special Health Authority established by this Order; and

“NHS Direct services” means services relating to the provision of health related information and advice to the public under the name NHS Direct before 1st April 2004.

Section 2 Establishment of the Authority

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

Section 3 Functions of the Authority

(1) Subject to and in accordance with such directions as the Secretary of State may give to the Authority , 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.

Section 4 Constitution of the Authority

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.

Section 5 Remuneration of members

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).

Section 6 Public meetings

The Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960 shall apply to the Authority.

Section 7 Transfer of rights and liabilities

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.

Section 8 Transfer of property

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.

Section 9 Transfer of officers

(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 ,

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.