Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978

The employment medical advisory service N.I.

48.—(1) There shall be established within the [F1 Executive] an employment medical advisory service, which shall have the functions of—

(a) securing thatF1 . . . , government departments and others concerned with the health of employed persons or of persons seeking or training for employment can be kept informed of, and adequately advised on, matters of which they ought respectively to take cognisance concerning the safeguarding and improvement of the health of those persons;

(b) giving to employed persons and persons seeking or training for employment information and advice on health in relation to employment and training for employment;

(c) advising the Department concerned on matters relating to health and safety at work.

(2) In paragraph (1)—

(a) the reference to persons training for employment shall include persons attending industrial rehabilitation courses provided by virtue of the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act (Northern Ireland) 1945 [1945 c.6] ; and

(b) the reference to persons (other thanF1 . . . the government departments mentioned therein) concerned with the health of employed persons or of persons seeking or training for employment shall be taken to include organisations representing employers, employees and occupational health practitioners respectively.

(3) The[F1 Executive with the consent of the] Department shall appoint persons to be employment medical advisers,F1 . . .

(4) A person shall not be qualified to be appointed, or to be, an employment medical adviser unless he is a fully registered medical practitioner [F2 who holds a licence to practise.]

(5) The[F1 Executive with the consent of the Department] may determine the cases and circumstances in which employment medical advisers are to perform the duties or exercise the powers conferred on employment medical advisers by or under this Order or otherwise.

(6) The[F1 Executive] may pay—

(a) to employment medical advisers such salaries or such fees and travelling or other allowances; and

(b) to other persons called upon to give advice in connection with the functions of the employment medical advisory service such travelling or other allowances or compensation for loss of remunerative time; and

(c) to persons attending for medical examinations conducted by, or in accordance with arrangements made by, employment medical advisers (including pathological, physiological and radiological tests and similar investigations so conducted) such travelling or subsistence allowances or such compensation for loss of earnings;

as the[F1 Executive], with the approval of the Department[F1 and the Department] of the Civil Service, may determine.

(7) The[F1 Executive with the consent of the Department] may for the purposes mentioned in paragraph (1), and for the purpose of assisting employment medical advisers in the performance of their functions, investigate or assist in, arrange for or make payments in respect of the investigation of problems arising in connection with any such matters as are so mentioned or otherwise in connection with the functions of employment medical advisers, and for the purpose of investigation or assisting in the investigation of such problems may provide and maintain such laboratories and other services as appear to the[F1 Executive with the consent of the Department] to be requisite.

F1 1998 NI 18

F2 Words in art. 48(4) added (16.11.2009) in accordance with art. art. 1(3) by The Medical Act 1983 (Amendment) Order 2002 (S.I. 2002/3135), art. 1(2)(3), Sch. 1 para. 19(1) (with Sch. 2)