National Health Service Reorganisation Act 1973

Transfer of staff

18 Transfers to employment by new authorities and social service authorities

(1) The Secretary of State may by order make provision—

(a) for the transfer on the appointed day to the employment of new health authorities designated by or under the order of persons so designated who immediately before that day were—

(i) employed by old health authorities so designated, or

(ii) employed by local health authorities or by the Greater London Council and so employed wholly or mainly for the purposes of functions mentioned in paragraphs (a) and (b) of the definition of health functions in section 16(6) of this Act, or

(iii) employed by local education authorities wholly or mainly for the purposes of functions under the enactments mentioned in section 16(3) of this Act, or

(iv) employed as relevant staff or speech therapists by local education authorities wholly or mainly for the purposes of providing special educational treatment in pursuance of section 34 of the [1944 c. 31.] Education Act 1944 and ascertaining whether children require such treatment, or

(v) employed by local authorities within the meaning of section 41 of this Act wholly or mainly for the purposes of functions under the enactments mentioned in subsection (1) of that section;

(b) for requiring any such authority, body or Council as is mentioned in sub-paragraphs (i) to (v) of the preceding paragraph and is designated by or under the order to make, after consulting new health authorities so designated if the order requires them to be consulted, schemes for the transfer on the appointed day to the employment of new health authorities designated by or under the schemes of persons designated by or under the schemes who were employed as mentioned in the preceding paragraph ;

(c) for any scheme made in pursuance of the preceding paragraph to be varied or revoked, at any time before the appointed day, by a subsequent scheme so made;

(d) for requiring an authority or other person by whom a scheme is made in pursuance of this subsection to submit the scheme or provisions of it to the Secretary of State for his approval, and for requiring the authority or other person to make, before the appointed day, such changes in the scheme as the Secretary of State may direct.

(2) The Secretary of State may by order make provision—

(a) for the transfer on the appointed day to the employment of new health authorities of persons to whom this subsection applies;

(b) for requiring public health authorities designated by or under the order to make schemes for the transfer on the appointed day, to the employment of new health authorities designated by or under the schemes, of persons to whom this subsection applies ;

(c) as to the manner of determining whether an individual is a person to whom this subsection applies and which authority is the new health authority to whose employment such a person is to be transferred;

(d) for determining, in the case of a person who apart from provision made by virtue of this paragraph falls to be transferred to the same employment or different employments by virtue of this subsection and any other provision of this Act, which of the provisions in question are not to apply in his case ;

and it shall be the duty of the Secretary of State, before he makes an order in pursuance of this subsection, to consult with respect to the order such bodies as appear to him to represent public health authorities and to be concerned with the order and any other body which he considers it desirable to consult about the order.

(3) The persons to whom the preceding subsection applies are—

(a) relevant staff employed immediately before the appointed day—

(i) by public health authorities wholly or mainly for the purposes of any functions of such authorities under sections 143, 147, 153 and 166 to 170 of the [1936 c. 49.] Public Health Act 1936, sections 40 and 41 of the [1961 c. 64.] Public Health Act 1961 and sections 49 to 52 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968 (which relate to the control of infectious disease and food poisoning) and Part IX of the [1968 c. 46.] Public Health Act 1936 (which relates to common lodging houses), or

(ii) by public health authorities, in their capacities as food and drugs authorities within the meaning of the [1955 c. 16 (4 Eliz. 2).] Food and Drugs Act 1955, wholly or mainly for the purposes of any functions of food and drugs authorities under that Act; and

(b) persons employed immediately before the appointed day wholly or mainly in premises provided in pursuance of section 196 of the [1936 c. 49.] Public Health Act 1936 (which relates to laboratories) and transferred to the Secretary of State by section 16 of this Act.

(4) The Secretary of State may by order make provision for the transfer—

(a) to the employment of bodies who are local authorities for the purposes of the [1970 c. 42.] Local Authority Social Services Act 1970 of persons of descriptions specified in the order who are for the time being employed by old health authorities or new health authorities wholly or mainly for the purposes of functions which stand referred to social services committees by virtue of section 2 of that Act;

(b) to the employment of new health authorities of relevant staff and speech therapists who are for the time being employed wholly or mainly for the purposes mentioned in the preceding paragraph by bodies who are such local authorities as are there mentioned;

and an order made by virtue of this subsection may include provision—

(i) for transfers in pursuance of the order to be made on such days as may be determined by or under the order; and

(ii) as to the manner of determining whether an individual is a person liable to be transferred by virtue of this subsection and which authority is the authority to whose employment such a person is to be transferred.

(5) A person transferred by virtue of paragraph (a) of the preceding subsection to the employment of such a body as is mentioned in that paragraph shall not be required in the course of that employment to perform duties otherwise than at or in connection with a hospital unless he has consented to perform such duties.

(6) The Secretary of State may by order make provision for the transfer to the employment of any new health authorities, with effect from such dates (whether before or after the making of the order) as may be specified in the order, of persons who—

(a) were employed by an old health authority, or by another authority in its capacity as a local health authority, immediately before the date when the authority ceased to exist or to be a local health authority; and

(b) are not on that date transferred to the employment of a new health authority by virtue of any provision of subsections (1) to (4) of this section.

(7) In this section—

• " new health authority " means any Regional or Area Health Authority and any special health authority;

• " old health authority " means any Regional Hospital Board, Board of Governors or Executive Council and any pricing committee mentioned in section 14(1) of this Act;

• " public health authority " means the council of a county, borough (including a London borough), urban district and rural district, the Common Council of the City of London and a port health authority constituted in pursuance of section 2 of the [1936 c. 49.] Public Health Act 1936 ; and

• " relevant staff " means persons of any of the following categories, namely, medical practitioners, persons registered or enrolled within the meaning of the [1957 c. 15.] Nurses Act 1957 and persons registered by a board in respect of a profession in pursuance of the [1960 c. 66.] Professions Supplementary to Medicine Act 1960.

19 Provisions supplementary to s. 18

(1) Without prejudice to the duty imposed on the Secretary of State by subsection (2) of the preceding section, it shall be the duty of the Secretary of State, before he makes an order in pursuance of that section or the following subsection, to consult with respect to the order such bodies as he may recognise as representing persons who in his opinion are likely to be transferred or affected by transfers in pursuance of the order.

(2) It shall be the duty of the Secretary of State by order to make provision for securing, in the case of a person transferred to the employment of any body by virtue of the preceding section.—

(a) that, while he is in the employment of that body and has not been served with a notice in writing stating that it is served for the purposes of this subsection and specifying such new terms and conditions of employment as are mentioned in the following paragraph, the scale of his remuneration and, taken as a whole, the other terms and conditions of his employment by that body are not less favourable to him than were immediately before the transfer those of the employment from which the transfer was made;

(b) that any new terms and conditions determined by that body for his employment by that body are such that—

(i) so long as he is engaged in duties reasonably comparable to the duties in which immediately before the transfer he was engaged in the employment from which the transfer was made, the scale of his remuneration and, taken as a whole, the other terms and conditions of his employment by that body are not less favourable to him than were, immediately before the transfer, those of the employment from which the transfer was made, and

(ii) so long as he is engaged in duties not so comparable, the terms and conditions of his employment by that body (excluding terms as to remuneration) are, taken as a whole, not less favourable than as mentioned in the preceding sub-paragraph ;

(c) that for the purposes of any enactment specified in the order the employments from which and to which he was transferred by virtue of the preceding section are treated as one continuous employment;

and an order made in pursuance of this subsection may contain provision for the determination of questions arising with respect to the effect in relation to any person of provision made by virtue of paragraphs (a) to (c) of this subsection.

(3) An order or scheme made by virtue of any provision of the preceding section except subsection (4)(a) may include provision for securing that, in determining whether a person was at a particular time employed by an authority wholly or mainly for the purposes of functions of the authority of a particular kind mentioned in that section, any functions of that authority which are of a different kind so mentioned and for the purposes of which the person was at that time also employed by the authority may be treated as functions of the particular kind in question; and it is hereby declared that, in determining in pursuance of the preceding section whether a person was at any time employed by an authority wholly or mainly for the purposes of functions of the authority, any employment of his at that time which was not employment by the authority is to be disregarded.

(4) An order made by virtue of the preceding section may include provision—

(a) for the determination of any question arising in connection with the order as to whether a person is or was employed in a particular capacity or wholly or mainly for particular purposes ;

(b) for enabling any person who objects, on such grounds as may be specified in the order, to his transfer in pursuance of the order or a scheme made by virtue of the order to make in respect of the transfer representations to whichever of the two Commissions appointed in pursuance of the following section is appropriate in his case, and for requiring the Commission to advise the person who made the order or scheme or, if that person has ceased to exist, to advise the Secretary of State on whether it would be appropriate in consequence of the representations to amend the order or scheme before the day when transfers take effect in pursuance of it or to transfer a person on or after that day from the employment to which he is transferred in pursuance of the order or scheme;

(c) for the transfer of a person in consequence of such representations—

(i) from the employment of a new health authority to the employment of a different new health authority or, except where the person in question was transferred in pursuance of the order or scheme from the employment of an old health authority, to the employment of an authority established by or under the [1972 c. 70.] Local Government Act 1972 or a London authority, or

(ii) from the employment of a body to which the person in question was transferred by virtue of paragraph (a) of subsection (4) of the preceding section to the employment of a different body which is such a local authority as is mentioned in that paragraph;

and in this subsection " old health authority " and " new health authority " have the same meanings as in the preceding section and " London authority " means the Greater London Council, a London borough council and the Common Council of the City of London.

20 Health Service Staff Commissions

(1) It shall be the duty of the Secretary of State to appoint, within one month beginning with the date of the passing of this Act, two Commissions to be called the National Health Service Staff Commission and the Welsh National Health Service Staff Commission; and the Commissions—

(a) shall consist respectively of such persons as the Secretary of State may from time to time appoint as members of the Commission after consulting any bodies appearing to him to represent persons employed in England or, as the case may be, employed in Wales who are liable to transfer in pursuance of section 18 of this Act and any other bodies appearing to him to be concerned with transfers of such persons in pursuance of that section; and

(b) shall in the case of the National Health Service Staff Commission exercise its functions in relation to England and in the case of the other Commission exercise its functions in relation to Wales.

(2) It shall be the duty of each Commission—

(a) to keep under review the arrangements made by relevant bodies for recruiting and engaging employees and the arrangements made for transfers in pursuance of section 18 of this Act and to give advice to the Secretary of State and the relevant bodies with respect to the arrangements ;

(b) to consider and advise the Secretary of State on any matter which he refers to the Commission as being a matter which in his opinion arises in connection with persons liable to transfer in pursuance of section 18 of this Act;

(c) to consider and advise the Secretary of State on the steps required to safeguard the interests of persons liable as aforesaid ; and

(d) to arrange for the consideration of representations made to the Commission in pursuance of provision made by virtue of paragraph (b) of subsection (4) of the preceding section and for the giving of advice in pursuance of provision so made ;

and each Commission shall have power to take any steps which it considers are appropriate for the purpose of selecting and recommending to Regional or Area Health Authorities and special health authorities persons whom it considers are suitable for employment by any of those authorities.

(3) The Secretary of State may—

(a) give directions to each Commission with respect to its procedure;

(b) give directions to relevant bodies with respect to the furnishing by them of information requested by the appropriate Commission and with respect to the action to be taken by them in consequence of advice given by that Commission;

(c) pay to any member of either Commission such remuneration as the Secretary of State may determine with the approval of the Minister for the Civil Service ;

(d) defray any expenses incurred with his approval by either Commission in the performance of its functions ; and

(e) wind up either Commission in such manner and at such time as he thinks fit;

and it shall be the duty of a body to which directions are given in pursuance of this subsection to comply with the directions.

(4) In this section " relevant bodies " means bodies from and to whose employment persons are liable to be transferred by virtue of section 18 of this Act.