Social Security Act 1973

Section 15(7).

SCHEDULE 7 The Attendance Allowance Board; miscellaneous provisions as to attendance allowance

PART I Membership of Board and method of discharging functions

1 (1) Subject to the following sub-paragraph, the Board shall consist of a chairman appointed by the Secretary of State and not less than 4 nor more than 9 other members so appointed; and all except 2 of the members appointed in pursuance of this sub-paragraph must be, and those 2 or either of them may be, medical practitioners.

(2) The Secretary of State may appoint such persons as he considers are specially qualified for the purpose, whether medical practitioners or not, to be additional members of the Board; but such a member shall not be entitled to act as a member of the Board in relation to any functions conferred on the Board otherwise than under section 15(6)(a) or (b)of this Act.

2 The [1957 c. 20.] House of Commons Disqualification Act 1957 shall continue with the Attendance Allowance Board included in Part II of Schedule 1 to the Act (bodies of which all members are disqualified from membership of the House of Commons) at the place where it was inserted in the Schedule by Schedule 2 to the [1970 c. 51.] National Insurance Act 1970.

3 The Board may appoint persons as advisers to the Board on matters on which in the Board's opinion those persons are specially qualified.

4 The Board may refer any individual case for investigation and report to one or more persons specially qualified in the Board's opinion to investigate that case.

5 The Board may delegate any of their functions in respect of any individual case to one or more medical practitioners and any functions so delegated shall be exercised by the practitioners in accordance with any directions of the Board.

6 In the foregoing paragraphs " medical practitioner" means a registered medical practitioner, and in paragraph 5 includes a person outside the United Kingdom who is not a registered medical practitioner but has qualifications corresponding (in the opinion of the Secretary of State) to those of a registered medical practitioner.

PART II Personnel, administration and expenses

7 (1) The chairman and other members of the Board shall hold office for such period of not more than 5 nor less than 3 years as the Secretary of State may determine ; but any member—

(a) shall be eligible for re-appointment from time to time on or after the expiration of his term of office; and

(b) may by notice in writing to the Secretary of State resign office at any time, while remaining eligible for re-appointment.

(2) In this paragraph, " year " means a period of 12 months.

8 The Secretary of State may remove a member of the Board on the ground of incapacity or misbehaviour.

9 Nothing in paragraphs 7 and 8 above applies to an additional member of the Board appointed in pursuance of paragraph 1(2); and each such member shall hold office for such period as the Secretary of State may determine, but the Secretary of State may at any time by notice in writing to the member terminate or alter that period and the member may at any time by notice in writing to the Secretary of State resign office.

10 The Secretary of State shall make arrangements for securing that such of his officers and servants as he considers to be required for the exercise of the Board's functions are available to act as officers and servants of the Board.

11 The expenses of the Board to such an amount as may be approved by the Minister for the Civil Service shall be paid by the Secretary of State.

12 There may be paid as part of the expenses of the Board—

(a) to all or any of the members of the Board, such salaries or other remuneration and travelling and other allowances ;

(b) to persons attending their meetings at the request of the Board, such travelling and other allowances (including compensation for loss of remunerative time); and

(c) to persons appointed advisers to the Board or to whom individual cases are referred by the Board or the exercise of any of the Board's functions is delegated, such fees,

as the Secretary of State may with the consent of the Minister for the Civil Service determine.

13 Subject to any directions given to them by the Secretary of State, the Board may—

(a) act notwithstanding any vacancy among their members; and

(b) regulate their own procedure (including the quorum).

PART III Claims, reviews and appeals

14 Subject to the following provisions of this Schedule, any question whether a person satisfies or has satisfied, or is likely to satisfy, for any period the conditions set out in paragraph (a) or (b) of section 15(1) of this Act shall be determined by the Board.

15 The Board may—

(a) at any time review a determination of theirs under paragraph 14 above or under this sub-paragraph, if they are satisfied that there has been a relevant change of circumstances since the determination was made, or that the determination was made in ignorance of a material fact or was based on a mistake as to a material fact;

(b) within the prescribed period review such a determination on any ground;

(c) issue a certificate under section 15(2) of this Act, or revoke or alter a certificate so issued, if the Board consider it appropriate to do so in consequence of a review in pursuance of this paragraph.

16 Provision shall be made by regulations for enabling appeals to be brought to a National Insurance Commissioner, with the leave of such a Commissioner, against a determination by the Board of any question of law arising on a review under paragraph 15 above or arising in connection with a refusal by the Board to review a determination made by them under paragraph 14 or 15.

17 In paragraph 16 above, references to the Board include references to a delegate appointed in pursuance of paragraph 5 of this Schedule; and regulations made in pursuance of paragraph 16 may provide for the application of section 87(2) of this Act to an appeal brought in pursuance of the regulations.

18 Provision may be made by regulations with respect to applications for reviews of determinations under this Part of this Schedule and with respect to the disposal of such applications ; but nothing in this paragraph shall be so construed as to prevent such a review from being undertaken in a case where no application is made.