National Assistance Act 1948

Registration etc. of homes for disabled persons and the aged and charities for disabled persons.

37 Registration of disabled persons' and old persons' homes.

(1) If any person carries on a disabled persons' or old persons' home without being registered under this section in respect thereof, he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds or, in the case of a second or subsequent offence, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds or to both such imprisonment and such fine.

(2) An application for registration under this section shall be made to the registration authority, that is to say the council of the county, county borough or large burgh in the area of which the home is situated, and shall be accompanied by a fee of live shillings.

(3) Subject to the provisions of this section the registration authority shall, on receipt of an application under the last foregoing subsection, register the applicant in respect of the home named in the application and issue to him a certificate of registration:

Provided that the authority may by order refuse to register the applicant if they are satisfied—

(a) that he or any person .employed or proposed to be employed by him in the management of the home or any part thereof is not a fit person, whether by reason of age or otherwise, to carry on or to be so employed at a home of such a description as the home named in the application; or

(b) that for reasons connected with situation, construction, state of repair, accommodation, staffing or equipment, the home or any premises used in connection therewith are not fit to be used for a home of such a description as aforesaid; or

(c) that the way in which it is proposed to conduct the home is such as not to provide services or facilities reasonably required by persons resorting to such a home.

(4) The registration authority may by order at any time cancel the registration of a person in respect of a home on any ground which would entitle them to refuse an application for the registration of that person in respect of that home or on the ground that that person has been convicted of an offence against this section or against regulations under this Part of this Act relating to the conduct of disabled persons' or old persons' homes, or on the ground that any other person has been convicted of such an offence in respect of that home.

(5) The certificate of registration under this section issued in respect of any home shall be kept affixed in a conspicuous place in the home; and if default is made in complying with this subsection the person carrying on the home shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding five pounds and to a further fine not exceeding forty shillings for each day on which the offence continues after conviction therefor.

(6) . Notwithstanding anything in subsection (1) of this section, where the person registered under this section in respect of a home dies his executor or his widow or any other member of his family may for a period not exceeding four weeks from his death, or such longer period as the registration authority may sanction, carry on the home without being registered in respect thereof.

(7) Where an offence against this section or any regulations under this Part of this Act relating to disabled persons' or old persons' homes has been committed by a body corporate, every person who at the time of the commission of the offence was a director, general manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or was purporting to act in any such capacity, shall be deemed to be guilty of that offence unless he proves that the offence was committed without his consent or connivance and that he exercised all such diligence to prevent the commission of the offence as he ought to have exercised having regard to the nature of his functions in that capacity and to all the circumstances.

(8) The registers kept for the purposes of this section shall be available for inspection at all reasonable times, and a person inspecting any such register shall be entitled to make copies of entries therein on payment of such fee (if any), not exceeding one shilling for each entry, as the registration authority may determine.

(9) In this Act the expression " disabled persons' or old persons' home " means any establishment the sole or main object of which is, or is held out to be, the provision of accommodation, whether for reward or not, for persons to whom section twenty-nine of this Act applies or for the aged or for both:

Provided that the said expression does not include—

(a) any hospital maintained in pursuance of an Act of Parliament,

(b) any institution for persons of unsound mind within the meaning of the Lunacy and Mental Treatment Acts, 1890 to 1930 or any mental hospital within the meaning of the Lunacy (Scotland) Acts, 1857 to 1913,

(c) any institution, house or home certified or approved under the Mental Deficiency Acts, 1913 to 1927 or the Mental Deficiency (Scotland) Acts, 1913 and 1940,

(d) any nursing home as defined in Part VI of the [26 Geo. 5. & 1 Edw. 8. c. 49.] Public Health Act, 1936, or the [1 & 2 Geo. 5. c. 73.] Nursing Homes Registration (Scotland) Act, 1938,

(e) any voluntary home as defined in Part V of the [23 & 24 Geo. 5. c. 12.] Children and Young Persons Act, 1933, or Part VI of the [1 Edw. 8. & 1 Geo. 6. c. 37.] Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act, 1937.

(f) any other premises being premises managed by a Government department or local authority, the Scottish Special Housing Association, or any other authority or body constituted by special Act of Parliament or incorporated by Royal Charter, or

(g) any existing establishment exempted from the operation of this section by or under regulations of the Minister of Health made after consultation with the Charity Commissioners, or as respects Scotland by or under regulations made by the Secretary of State.

In the last foregoing paragraph the expression " existing establishment " means an establishment which was being carried on immediately before the coming into operation of this section, but no establishment so carried on shall be exempted under that paragraph as respects any premises in which it was not being carried on immediately before the coming into operation of this section.

38 Procedure and right of appeal where registration refused or cancelled.

(1) Not less than fourteen days before making under the last foregoing section an order refusing an application for registration or an order cancelling any registration, the registration authority shall send by post to the applicant or to the person registered, as the case may be, notice of their intention to make such an order.

(2) Every such notice shall state the grounds on which the authority intend to make the order and shall contain an intimation that if within fourteen days after the receipt of the notice the applicant or person registered, as the case may be, informs the authority in writing of his desire to show cause, in person or by a representative, why the order should not be made, the authority will before making the order afford him an opportunity so to do.

(3) If the registration authority, after giving the applicant or person registered, as the case may be, an opportunity of being heard by them, decide to refuse the application for registration, or to cancel the registration, they shall make an order to that effect and shall send a copy of the order by post to the applicant or person registered, as the case may be.

(4) A person aggrieved by an order refusing an application for registration under the last foregoing section or cancelling any registration thereunder may appeal to a court of summary jurisdiction having jurisdiction in the place where the home in question is situated; and the cancellation under the last foregoing section of any registration shall not take effect until the expiration of the time within which an appeal may be brought under this subsection or, where such an appeal is brought, before the determination of the appeal.

(5) Sections three hundred to three hundred and two of the Public Health Act, 1936 (which relate to appeals) shall apply for the purposes of this section as if this and the last foregoing section were contained in that Act and that Act extended to London.

(6) In the application of this section to Scotland, subsection (5) shall be omitted, and any appeal against an order under subsection (4) shall be brought within twenty-one days from the date of the order.

39 Inspection of disabled persons' and old persons' homes.

(1) Any person authorised in that behalf by the Minister of Health, or as respects Scotland by the Secretary of State, may at all reasonable times enter and inspect any premises which are used, or which that person has reasonable cause to believe to be used, for the purposes of a disabled persons' or old persons' home.

(2) Any person authorised in that behalf by the registration authority may at all reasonable times enter and inspect any premises in the area of the authority which are used, or which that person has reasonable cause to believe to be used, as aforesaid.

40 Supplementary provisions as to regulation of disabled persons' or old persons' homes.

(1) The Minister of Health, or as respects Scotland the Secretary of State, may make regulations as to the conduct of disabled persons' or old persons homes, and in particular—

(a) for empowering the registration authority to limit the number of persons or persons of any description who may be received into any such home and for enabling registration of any such home to be made subject to the condition that persons shall not be received therein in excess of the number fixed for the home in accordance with the regulations;

(b) as to the facilities and services to be provided in such homes.

(2) The registers to be kept by registration authorities for the purposes of section thirty-seven of this Act shall be in such form, and contain such particulars, as may be provided by regulations under this section, and such regulations may make provision as to the information to be supplied on any application for registration under the said section thirty-seven.

(3) Regulations under this section may provide that a contravention of or failure to comply with any specified provision of the regulations shall be an offence against the regulations; and any person guilty of an offence against regulations under this section shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding five pounds or, in the case of a second or subsequent offence, to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds.

41 Registration of charities for disabled persons.

(1) The [3 & 4 Geo. 6. c. 31.] War Charities Act, 1940, shall, subject to the provisions of this section, have effect as if throughout that Act references to a war charity included references to any charity for disabled persons, that is to say, any fund, institution, association or undertaking, whether established before or after the passing of this Act, having for its sole or principal object or among its principal objects the promotion of the welfare of persons, to whom section twenty-nine of this Act applies.

(2) In the application of the said Act of 1940 to charities for disabled persons, the provisions of that Act shall have effect subject to the following provisions of this subsection:—

(a) the registration authorities shall be the councils of counties, county boroughs and large burghs;

(b) in relation to charities not being war charities as defined in the said Act of 1940 as originally enacted, subsection (3) of section one of that Act shall be amended by-the substitution for the reference to the passing of that Act of a reference to the coming into operation of this section;

(c) notwithstanding anything in subsection (1) of section two of the said Act of 1940, the registration authority may refuse to register a charity if they are satisfied that its objects are adequately attained by a charity registered in accordance with this section;

(d) regulations made by the Charity Commissioners under section four of the said Act of 1940 shall be subject to the approval of the Minister of Health instead of the Secretary of State;

(e) paragraph (e) of subsection (1) of the said section four (under which regulations may require appeals and advertisements to state that a charity is registered under the said Act of 1940) shall have effect as if for the words " under this Act " there were substituted the words " in accordance with the National Assistance Act, 1948 ".

(3) Regulations made under section four of the said Act of 1940 shall provide, in the case of a charity for disabled persons which immediately before the coming into operation of this section was registered under the [10 & 11 Geo. 5. c. 49.] Blind Persons Act, 1920, or the War Charities Act, 1940, for the registration to have effect as registration in accordance with this section, and shall make such consequential provision as may be necessary for that purpose.

(4) In section two of the [9 & 10 Geo. 6. c. 13.] Finance (No. 2) Act, 1945 (which provides for exemption from purchase tax on wireless receivers belonging to charities registered under section three of the Blind Persons Act, 1920) for the words '' under section three of the Blind Persons Act, 1920 " there shall be substituted the words " in accordance with section forty-one of the National Assistance Act, 1948, or any corresponding enactment of the Parliament of Northern Ireland. "