16Recovery of expenses.
(1)As from the appointed day, it shall be the duty of the council of every county and county borough and of every other local authority to recover from any person who has been maintained by them in any institution, other than a person who has become an inmate of an institution for the purpose of receiving treatment for infectious disease, or from any person legally liable to maintain that person, the whole of the expenses incurred by the council or authority in the maintenance of that person, or, if the council or authority are satisfied that the persons from whom the expenses are recoverable cannot reasonably, having regard to their financial circumstances, be required to pay the whole of those expenses, such part, if any, of the expenses as they are in the opinion of the council or authority able to pay:
Provided that any such council or authority may, by agreement with the governing body of any association or fund established for the purpose of providing benefits to members or other beneficiaries thereof, accept from the association or fund, in respect of the expenses incurred by the council or authority in the maintenance of any member or beneficiary of the association or fund, payment of such sums as may be provided by the agreement, in lieu of recovering the whole or any part of the said expenses from the member or beneficiary, or from any person legally liable to maintain him.
(2)Any expenses recoverable under this section shall, without prejudice to any other remedy, be recoverable summarily as a civil debt.
(3)For the purposes of this section—
" Institution " means any hospital, maternity home or other residential institution accommodation wherein is provided by the council of a county or county borough or other local authority under the powers conferred by the Public Health Acts, 1875 to 1926, or the corresponding enactments relating to London, the Local Government Act, 1888, as amended by this Act, or the Maternity and Child Welfare Act, 1918.
The expenses incurred by the council or authority in providing for the maintenance of a person in an institution shall, in respect of each day of maintenance in the institution, be deemed to be a sum representing the average daily cost per patient of the maintenance of the institution and the staff thereof and the maintenance and treatment of the patients therein.
(4)Nothing in this section shall affect any right which a local authority may have under any enactment or otherwise to recover expenses other than those to which the foregoing provisions of this section apply.