Section 986: Meaning of “health service body”
2923.This section provides a definition of “health service body”. It is based on section 519A(2).
2924.Section 519A(2) of ICTA states that the definition of “health service body” included a National Health Service trust constituted under section 12A of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978. However, there are no longer any “National Health Service trusts” in Scotland (they were abolished as at 1 April 2004) and the NHS Reform (Scotland) Act 2004 repealed section 12A of the 1978 Act. The reference to section 12A is therefore not reproduced in this provision.
2925.Section 519A(2) of ICTA also states that the definition of “health service body” included a Health and Social Services trust established under the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1991. However such trusts were renamed by section 1 of the Health and Social Care (Reform) Act (Northern Ireland) 2009. The table accordingly refers to Health and Social Care trusts.
2926.The table includes references to Health and Social Services Boards and the Northern IrelandCentral Services Agency for the Health and Social Services. These bodies were dissolved from 1 April 2009 by the Health and Social Care (Reform) Act (Northern Ireland) 2009.
2927.The 2009 Act makes provision about the transfer of functions of Health and Social Services Boards and of the Northern Ireland Central Services Agency for the Health and Social Services to other bodies. Section 27 of the that Act makes provision about the translation of legislative references to the old bodies into references to bodies to whom functions of the old bodies have been transferred. Subsections (2) and (4) of that section deal with the transfers of functions of the bodies referred to in section 519A(2) of ICTA. The translations of the references do not operate generally, but only “in relation to” functions that have been transferred from the old bodies to the new bodies.
2928.Legislative references to the old bodies do not therefore include references to functions which were not carried on previously by those bodies.
2929.In order to preserve the current law this Act retains the references to the old bodies.
