Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944

Provisions as to advisory council and committees E+W+S+N.I.

1 (1) The national advisory council and each district advisory committee shall consist of members appointed by the Minister, being—

(a) one person appointed by him as being an independent person to act as chairman; and

(b) such number of other persons as the Minister may determine in the case of the said council, or of that committee, as the case may be, including an equal number of persons appointed by him, after consultation with such organisations representing employers and workers respectively, or both employers and workers, as he thinks fit, to represent employers and workers respectively.

(2) In the absence of the chairman of the said council or of any of the said committees his functions may be performed by a member of the council or committee authorised in that behalf by the Minister.

2 Each district committee shall establish one or more panels consisting of such persons, whether or not including persons not members of the committee, and constituted in such manner, as the committee may with the approval of the Minister determine, and may delegate to a panel so established the duty of making recommendations to the Minister either as respects any particular matter referred to the committee by him under this Act or as respects any class of matters to be so referred:

Provided that this paragraph shall not be construed as authorising the delegation by a committee to a panel of the duty to make a report to the Minister for the purposes of subsection (7) of section nine of this Act.

3 The Minister may nominate a duly qualified medical practitioner for the purposes of any reference or references under this Act to a district committee, and a person so nominated shall act as a member of a panel charged under the last preceding paragraph with the duty of making recommendations on a reference for the purposes of which he is nominated.

4 There shall be paid by the Minister out of moneys provided by Parliament to the members of the said council, of each of the said committees and of any panel established as aforesaid, and to any person requested by the said council or any of the said committees or such a panel to attend before them and so attending, such travelling and other allowances, including compensation for loss of remunerative time, and such other expenses of the said council, of any of the said committees or of any panel established as aforesaid, as the Minister with the approval of the Treasury may determine.

5 (1) The Minister may by regulations make any such provision as appears to him to be expedient with respect to the procedure of the said council, of any of the said committees or of any panel established as aforesaid.

(2) Subject to any provision made under the preceding sub-paragraph, the said council and each of the said committees shall have power respectively to regulate their own procedure, and, subject as aforesaid and to any direction given by the committee by which it is established, a panel established as aforesaid shall have power to regulate the procedure of the panel.

(3) References in this paragraph to the procedure of the said council, of a committee or of a panel, include references to the quorum of that body.