The National Institute for Clinical Excellence Regulations 1999

Disability of Chairman and Members in Proceedings on Account of Pecuniary or Other Personal Interest

12.—(1) Subject to the following provisions of this regulation, if the chairman or a member has any pecuniary or other personal interest, direct or indirect, in any matter and is present at any meeting of the Institute at which the matter is the subject of consideration, he shall at the meeting and as soon as practicable after its commencement, disclose his interest and shall not take part in the consideration or discussion of the matter or vote on any question with respect to it.

(2) The Secretary of State may, subject to such conditions as he may think fit to impose, remove any disability imposed by this regulation in any case in which it appears to him in the interests of the health service that the disability should be removed.

(3) The Institute may, by Standing Orders made under regulation 11(2), provide for the exclusion of the chairman or a member from a meeting of the Institute while any matter in which he has a pecuniary or other personal interest, direct or indirect, is under consideration.

(4) Any remuneration, compensation or allowances payable to the chairman or a member by virtue of paragraph 9 of Schedule 5 to the Act (pay and allowances) shall not be treated as a pecuniary or other personal interest for the purpose of this regulation.

(5) Subject to paragraphs (2) and (6), the circumstances in which the chairman or a member shall be treated for the purpose of this regulation as having an indirect pecuniary or other personal interest in a matter include–

(a) if he, or a nominee of his, is a director of a company or other body, not being a public body, which has a direct pecuniary interest in the matter under consideration; or

(b) if he is a partner of, or is in the employment of, a person who has a direct pecuniary interest in the matter under consideration;

and in the case of married persons living together the interest of one spouse shall, if known to the other, be deemed for the purpose of this regulation to be also an interest of the other.

(6) Neither the chairman nor a member shall be treated as having a pecuniary or other personal interest in any matter by reason only–

(a) of his membership of a company or other body if he has no beneficial interest in any securities of that company or other body; or

(b) of an interest which is so remote or insignificant that it cannot reasonably be regarded as likely to influence him in the consideration or discussion of, or in voting on, any question with respect to that matter.

(7) Where the chairman or a member–

(a) has a pecuniary or other personal interest in a matter by reason only of a beneficial interest in securities of a company or other body; and

(b) the total nominal value of those securities does not exceed £5,000 or one-hundredth of the total nominal value of the issued share capital of the company or body, whichever is the lesser; and

(c) if the share capital is of more than one class, the total nominal value of shares of any one class in which he has a beneficial interest does not exceed one-hundredth of the total issued share capital of that class,

this regulation shall not prohibit him from taking part in the consideration or discussion of the matter, or from voting on any question with respect to it, without prejudice however to his duty to disclose his interest.

(8) This regulation applies to a committee or sub-committee as it applies to the Institute and applies to a member of any such committee or sub-committee (whether or not he is also a member of the Institute) as it applies to a member of the Institute.

(9) In this regulation–

• “public body” includes

  (a)

  any body established for the purpose of carrying on, under national ownership, any industry or undertaking or part of any industry or undertaking;

  (b)

  the governing body of any university, university college or college school or hall of a university; and

  (c)

  the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty incorporated by the National Trust Act 1907(1);

• “securities” mean–

  (a)

  shares or debentures, whether or not constituting a charge on the assets of a company or other body, or rights or interests in any share or such debentures; or

  (b)

  rights (whether actual or contingent) in respect of money lent to, or deposited with, any industrial or provident society or building society;

• “shares” means shares in the share capital of a company or other body of the stock of a company or other body.

(1)

1907 c. 36.