26(1)The Secretary of State may by order transfer to a Primary Care Trust any specified description of employees to which this paragraph applies.
(2)This paragraph applies to employees of—
(a)a Strategic Health Authority,
(b)a Primary Care Trust,
(c)an NHS trust.
(3)An order may be made under this paragraph only if any prescribed requirements about consultation have been complied with in relation to each of the employees to be transferred.
27(1)The contract of employment of an employee transferred under paragraph 26—
(a)is not terminated by the transfer, and
(b)has effect from the date of the transfer as if originally made between the employee and the Primary Care Trust to which he is transferred.
(2)In particular—
(a)all the rights, powers, duties and liabilities of the body from which an employee is transferred under paragraph 26 under or in connection with his contract of employment are by virtue of this sub-paragraph transferred to the Primary Care Trust to which the employee is transferred under that paragraph, and
(b)anything done before the date of the transfer by or in relation to the body from which he is so transferred in respect of him or the contract of employment is deemed from that date to have been done by or in relation to the Primary Care Trust to which he is transferred.
(3)Sub-paragraphs (1) and (2) do not transfer an employee’s contract of employment, or the rights, powers, duties and liabilities under or in connection with it, if he informs the body from which they would be transferred, or the Primary Care Trust to which they would be transferred, that he objects to the transfer.
(4)Where an employee objects as mentioned in sub-paragraph (3) his contract of employment with the body from which he would be transferred is terminated immediately before the date on which the transfer would occur; but he must not be treated, for any purpose, as having been dismissed by that body.
(5)This paragraph does not affect any right of an employee to which paragraph 26 applies to terminate his contract of employment if a substantial change is made to his detriment in his working conditions.
(6)But no such right arises by reason only that under this paragraph the identity of his employer changes, unless the employee shows that, in all the circumstances, the change is a significant change and is to his detriment.
28(1)Where an employee will be transferred by an order under paragraph 26 but will continue to be employed for certain purposes by the transferor, the order may provide that the contract of employment of the employee is, on the date on which the employee is transferred, divided so as to constitute two separate contracts of employment between the employee and the transferor and the employee and the Primary Care Trust in question.
(2)Where an employee’s contract of employment is divided as provided under sub-paragraph (1), the order must provide for paragraph 27 to have effect in the case of the employee and his contract of employment subject to appropriate modifications.
29Where a Primary Care Trust is dissolved, an order under paragraph 23 includes power to transfer employees of the Primary Care Trust and the order may make any provision in relation to the transfer of those employees which is or may be made in relation to the transfer of employees under paragraph 26.