Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972

[F1 5.— (1) Where goods or services are provided under this Order and either— N.I.

(a) any charge payable by any person under this Order in respect of the provision of the goods or services is reduced, remitted or repaid, but that person is not entitled to the reduction, remission or repayment; or

(b) any payment under this Order is made to, or for the benefit of, any person in respect of the cost of obtaining the goods or services, but that person is not entitled to, or to the benefit of, the payment,

the amount mentioned in sub-paragraph (2) is recoverable summarily as a debt from the person in question by the responsible authority.

(2) That amount—

(a) in a case within sub-paragraph (1)(a), is the amount of the charge or (where it has been reduced) reduction;

(b) in a case within sub-paragraph (1)(b), is the amount of the payment.

(3) Where two or more persons are liable under paragraph 3 or this paragraph to pay an amount in respect of the same charge or payment, those persons shall be jointly and severally liable.

(4) For the purposes of this paragraph, the circumstances in which a person is to be treated as not entitled to a reduction, remission or repayment of a charge, or to (or to the benefit of) a payment, include in particular those in which it is received (wholly or partly)—

(a) on the ground that he or another is a person of a particular description, where the person in question is not in fact of that description;

(b) on the ground that he or another holds a particular certificate, when the person in question does not in fact hold such a certificate or does hold such a certificate but is not entitled to it;

(c) on the ground that he or another has made a particular statement, when the person in question has not made such a statement or the statement made by him is false.

(5) In this paragraph and paragraph 6, “responsible authority” means—

(a) in relation to the recovery of any charge under paragraph 3 in respect of the provision of goods or services under this Order, the person by whom the charge is recoverable;

(b) in relation to the recovery by virtue of this paragraph of the whole or part of the amount of any such charge, the person by whom the charge would have been recoverable;

(c) in a case within sub-paragraph (1)(b), the person who made the payment.

(6) But the Department may by directions provide for—

(a) the functions of any responsible authority of recovering any charges under this Order in respect of the provision of goods or services under this Order;

(b) the functions of any responsible authority under this paragraph and paragraph 6,

to be exercised on behalf of the authority by another [F2 health care] body.]

F1 2001 c. 3 (NI)

F2 Words in Order substituted (1.4.2009) by Health and Social Care (Reform) Act (Northern Ireland) 2009 (c. 1), s. 34(3), Sch. 6 para. 1(1)(b); S.R. 2009/114, art. 2