National Health Service Act, 1946 Part 6

General

Financial Provisions

52.-(1) Any expenses incurred by the Minister in the exercise of his functions under this Act, the Lunacy and Mental Treatment Acts, 1890 to 1930, or the Mental Deficiency Acts, 1913 to 1938, shall be defrayed out of moneys provided by Parliament.
(2) All sums received by the Minister under this Act, except sums required to be transferred to the Hospital Endowments Fund, shall be paid into the Exchequer.

53.-(1) In respect of the· period beginning with the appointed day and ending with the thirty-first day of March next following and each subsequent period of twelve months, there shall be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament to every local health authority a grant in respect of the expenditure, estimated in the prescribed manner, incurred by the authority in carrying out their functions as a local health authority, whether under this Act or any other enactment, and the grant shall be payable in accordance with regulations made by the Minister with the approval of the Treasury:
Provided that the total amount of the grant payable to any local health authority in respect of any such period shall not exceed three-quarters of the total expenditure estimated as aforesaid of that authority, and shall not be less than three­ eighths of that expenditure:
(2) Where any functions of two or more local health authorities are being exercised by a joint board, grants shall be paid to the said authorities under the last foregoing subsection in respect of their expenditure in defraying expenses of the board in exercising those functions, as if that expenditure were incurred by them in exercising functions as local health authorities.
(3) For the purposes of section one hundred and four of the Local Government Act, 1929 (which authorises the reduction of grants payable under Part VI of that Act to a council which fails to achieve and maintain an efficient service) grants payable under this section shall be deemed to be payable under the said Part VI.
(4) The council of every county and county borough, the Common Council of the City of London and the council of every metropolitan borough shall pay to the Minister in respect of the period beginning with the appointed day and ending with the thirty-first day of March next following, and each subsequent period of twelve months during the third fixed grant period within the meaning of the Local Government Act, 1929, a sum equal to the loss on account of the grants mentioned in paragraph 2 of the Second Schedule to the Local Government Act, 1929, discontinued by virtue of section eighty-five of that Act, as determined in accordance with Part II of the Fourth Schedule to that Act, less such part of that loss as is attributable to grants for the welfare of the blind :
Provided that-
(a) where the said loss on account of the said grants has, in the case of the council of any county or county borough, the Common Council of the City of London or the council of any metropolitan borough, been increased or reduced by an amount certified by the Minister under regulations made under paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of section one hundred and eight of the Local Government Act, 1929, the payment to be made by the council under this subsection shall be increased or reduced by such part of the amount so certified as is attributable to the said grants other than grants for the welfare of the blind;
(b) in the case of a county or county borough or metropolitan borough constituted since the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and twenty nine, the amount to be paid by the council thereof under this section shall be the amount certified by the Minister under the said regulations as the loss of that county or county borough or metropolitan borough on account of the said grants, less such part of that amount as is attributable to grants for the welfare of the blind;
(c) if the said third fixed grant period ends during the period beginning with the appointed day and ending with the thirty-first day of March next following or during any subsequent period of twelve months, the payments to be made by councils under this sub­section in respect of that period shall bear the same proportion to the sums that would be payable in respect of a complete period of twelve months as that period bears to a complete period of twelve months.

54.-(1) There shall be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament to-
(a) every Regional Hospital Board such sums as may be necessary to defray the expenditure of the Board (including expenditure incurred by a Hospital Management Committee in exercising functions on behalf of the Board) being expenditure approved by the Minister in the prescribed manner;
(b) every Board of Governors of a teaching hospital such sums as may be necessary to defray the expenditure of the Board being expenditure approved as aforesaid.
(2) All expenditure of a Hospital Management Committee approved as aforesaid shall be defrayed by the Regional Hospital Board for the area in which the hospital or group of hospitals in question is situated.
(3) There shall be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament to every Executive Council such sums as the Minister may with the approval of the Treasury determine to have been incurred by the Council, or by an Ophthalmic Services Committee on behalf of the Council, for the purpose of discharging their functions under this Act.
(4) There shall be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament such expenses incurred by the Central Council, any standing advisory committee constituted under section two of this Act, the Medical Practices Committee, the Tribunal constituted under section forty-two of this Act and the Dental Estimates Board as may be determined by the Minister with the approval of the Treasury.
(5) Any payments made under regulations in respect of any loss of remunerative time or any travelling or subsistence expenses to the members of any body constituted under this Act, and any remuneration so payable to members of the Medical Practices Committee, the Tribunal constituted under section forty-two of this Act or the Dental Estimates Board shall be defrayed out of moneys provided by Parliament.
(6) Payments made under this section shall be made in accordance with regulations made by the Minister and approved by the Treasury, and shall be made at such times and in such manner as the Treasury may direct, and subject to such conditions as to records, certificates, or otherwise the Minister may with the approval of the Treasury determine.

55.-(1) Every local health authority being the council of a county borough shall keep accounts of the sums received and expended by them in the exercise of their functions as such an authority, whether under this Act or under any other enactment, and those accounts shall be made up and audited in like manner as the accounts of a county council and shall be kept separately from their other accounts; and the enactments relating to the audit of accounts by a district auditor and to the matters incidental to such audit and consequential thereon shall have effect in relation to the accounts which the council of a county borough are required to keep under this section as they have effect in relation to the accounts of a county council.
(2) Every Regional Hospital Board, Board of Governors of a teaching hospital, Hospital Management Committee and Executive Council shall keep accounts in such form as the Minister may with the approval of the Treasury prescribe, and those accounts shall be audited by auditors appointed by the Minister, and the Comptroller and Auditor General may examine all such accounts and any records relating thereto and any report of the auditor thereon.
(3) Every such Board, Committee and Council shall prepare and transmit to the Minister in respect of each financial year annual accounts in such form as the Minister may with the approval of the Treasury prescribe.
(4) The Minister shall prepare in respect of each financial year, in such form as the Treasury may direct, summarised accounts of such Boards, Committees and Councils, and shall transmit them on or before the thirtieth day of November in each year to the Comptroller and Auditor General who shall examine and certify them and lay copies of them together with his report thereon before both Houses of Parliament.

56.-(1) The Minister shall prepare in respect of each financial year, in such form as the Treasury may direct, ac.counts of all moneys received into or paid out of the Hosp1tal Endowments Fund and of any other assets transferred into or out of that Fund, and the Comptroller and Auditor General shall examine and certify such accounts and lay copies of them together with his report thereon before both Houses of Parliament.
(2) Any moneys forming part of the Hospital Endowments Fund may from time to time be paid over to the National Debt Commissioners, and by them invested in any securities which are for the time being authorised by Parliament as investments for savings banks funds.

Administrative provisions.

57.-(1) Where the Minister is of opinion, on complaint or otherwise, that any Regional Hospital Board, Board of Governors of a teaching hospital, Hospital Management Committee, Executive Council, Ophthalmic Services Committee or local health authority, or the Medical Practices Committee or the Dental Estimates Board have failed to carry out any functions conferred or imposed on them by or under this Act, or have in carrying out those functions failed to comply with any regulations or directions relating thereto, he may after such inquiry as he may think fit make an order declaring them to be in default.
(2) Except where the body in default is a local health authority, the members of the body shall forthwith vacate their office and the order shall provide for the appointment, in accordance with the provisions of this Act, of new members of the body, and may contain such provisions as seem to the Minister expedient for authorising any person to act in the place of the body in question pending the appointment of the new members.
(3) If the body in default is a local health authority, the order shall direct them, for the purpose of remedying the default, to discharge such of their functions, in such manner and within such time or times, as may be specified in the order, and if the authority fail to comply with any direction given under this subsection, within the time limited for compliance therewith, the Minister, in lieu of enforcing the order by mandamus or otherwise, may make an order transferring to himself such of the functions of the authority as he thinks fit.
(4) Any expenses certified by the Minister to have been incurred by him in discharging functions transferred to him under this section from a local health authority shall on demand be paid to him by that authority and shall be recover able by him from them as a debt due to the Crown, and the authority or (in the case of a joint board) any constituent local authority thereof shall have the like power of raising the money required as they have of raising money for paying expenses incurred directly by them, and the payment of any such expenses incurred by the Minister as aforesaid shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Minister, be a purpose for which the authority may borrow money in accordance with the statutory provisions relating to borrowing by that authority.
(5) An order made under this section may contain such supplementary and incidental provisions as appear to the Minister to be necessary or expedient, including provision for the transfer to the Minister of property and liabilities of the body in default, and where any such order is varied or revoked by a subsequent order, the revoking order or a subsequent order may make provision for the transfer to the body in default of any property or liabilities acquired or incurred by the Minister in discharging any of the functions transferred to him.

58.-(1) The Minister may acquire, either by agreement or compulsorily, any land required by him for the purposes of this Act, and, without prejudice to the generality of this subsection, land may be so acquired for the purpose of providing residential accommodation for persons employed at any hospital vested in the Minister.
( 2) A local health authority may be authorised to purchase land compulsorily for the purposes of this Act by means of an order made by the authority and confirmed by the Minister.
(3) The Acquisition of Land (Authorisation Procedure) Act, 1946, shall apply to the compulsory purchase of land by the Minister or a local health authority under this section, and accordingly shall have effect-
(a) as if subsection (I) of section one thereof (which refers to the compulsory purchase of land by local authorities under public general Acts in force immediately before the commencement of that Act and by the Minister of Transport under certain enactments) included a reference to any compulsory purchase of land by the Minister under this section; and
( b) as if this section had been in force immediately before the commencement of the said Act :
Provided that section two of the said Act (which confers temporary powers for speedy acquisition of land in urgent cases) shall not apply to any compulsory purchase of land under this section.
(4) Section one hundred and seventy-six of the Local Government Act, 1933 (which applies the Lands Clauses Acts to acquisition of land by agreement) shall apply to the acquisition of land by the Minister under this section in like manner as it applies to such acquisition by a local authority under Part VII of the said Act.

59.-(1) A Regional Hospital Board and the Board of Governors of any teaching hospital and a Hospital Management Committee shall have power. to accept, hold and administer any property upon trust for purposes relating to hospital services or to the functions of the Board or Committee under Part II of this Act with respect to research.

(2) Part II of the Mortmain and Charitable Uses Act, 1888, and the Mortmain and Charitable Uses Act, 1891 (which impose restrictions upon assurances of land and personal estate to charitable uses) shall not have effect. with respect to assurance (within the meaning of section ten of the said Act of 1888) to any such Board or Committee of land or of personal estate to be laid out in the purchase of land.

60.-(1) Where property, other than property transferred to the Minister or to the Board of Governors of a teaching hospital or to a Hospital Management Committee under section six or section seven of this Act, is held on trust immediately before the appointed day, and the terms of the trust instrument authorise or require the trustees, whether immediately or in the future, to apply any part of the capital or income of the trust property for the purposes of any hospital to which section six of this Act applies, the trust instrument shall be construed as authorising or, as the case may be, requiring the trustees to apply the trust property, to the like extent and at the like times, for the purpose of making payments, whether of capital or income-
(a) in the case of a hospital designated as a teaching hospital or included in a group of hospitals so designated, to the Board of Governors of that teaching hospital;
(b) in the case of any other hospital, to the Regional Hospital Board for the area in which the hospital is situated or to the Hospital Management Committee for the hospital or for the group of hospitals in which it is comprised.
(2) Any sums paid as aforesaid to any such Board or Committee shall, so far as practicable, be applied by them for the purposes specified in the trust instrument.

  1. Where the character and associations of any voluntary hospital transferred to the Minister by virtue of this Act are such as to link it with a particular religious denomination, regard shall be had in the general administration of the hospital and in the making of appointments to the Hospital Management Committee to the preservation of the character and associations of the hospital.

  2. A Regional Hospital Board or Board of Governors of a teaching hospital may, with the approval of the Minister, arrange with any local education authority or voluntary organisation for-

(a) ) the use of any premises forming part of a hospital administered by the Regional Hospital Board or, as the case may be, forming part of the teaching hospital, as a special school; and
(b) ) the maintenance by the Board, where necessary, of children (other than patients) attending the special school;
and the arrangements may include provision for the payment of charges by the local education authority or voluntary organisation, as the case may be, in respect of the use of such premises and the maintenance of such children.

  1. A local health authority who provide premises, furniture or equipment for any of the purposes of this Act may, on such terms (including terms with respect to the services of any staff employed by them) as may be agreed, permit authority the use thereof by any other local health authority or by any of the bodies constituted under this Act or by any voluntary organisation providing services under Part III of this Act or any service connected with the duties of a local health authority under the Mental Deficiency Acts, 1913 to 1938, or by a local education authority.

  2. A local health authority may purchase and store and supply to the following authorities, that is to say
    (a) any other local health authority ,
    (b) any Regional Hospital Board or Board of Governors of a teaching hospital or Hospital Management Committee; or
    (c) any Executive Council;
    any goods or materials required for the discharge of the functions of the authority supplied, on such terms as may be agreed between the two authorities.

  3. A local health authority may provide, or may improve or furnish, residential accommodation for officers employed by them for the purposes of any of their functions as a local health authority, or for officers employed by a voluntary organisation for the purposes of any services provided under Part III of this Act

  4. Regulations may make provision with respect to the qualifications, remuneration, and conditions of service of any officers employed by any body constituted under this Act or employed by a local health authority in their capacity as such authority or by any such voluntary organisation as is referred to in section sixty-three of this Act, and no officer to whom the regulations apply shall be employed otherwise than in accordance with the regulations.

67.-(1) Regulations may provide-
(a) for the granting out of moneys provided by Parliament of superannuation benefits to officers of such classes as may be prescribed, being officers of Regional Hospital Boards, Boards of Governors of teaching hospitals, Executive Councils or other bodies constituted under this Act, or other officers engaged in health services, whether provided under this Act or otherwise but not provided by a local health authority or other local authority, and for the recovery of contributions from such officers and, in such cases as may be prescribed, from their employers;
(b) for extending, with such modifications as may be prescribed, the provisions of the Local Government Superannuation Act, 1937, or any local Act scheme within the meaning of that Act to such officers as may be prescribed, or for modifying the provisions of the said Act or of any such scheme in their application to such officers as may be prescribed, being in either case officers of local health authorities or other local authorities or officers of voluntary organisations engaged in the provision of services under Part III of this Act or under the Mental deficiency Acts, 1913 to 1938;
(c) for the granting out of moneys provided by Parliament of superannuation benefits to medical practitioners and dental practitioners providing general medical services or general dental services, and for the recovery of contributions from such practitioners and, in such cases as may be prescribed, from Executive Councils;
(d) for dealing with cases where any person is engaged in employment which would bring him within all or any two of the foregoing paragraphs;
(e) for the payment to the Minister by any local authority or other person of transfer value in respect of persons who become entitled to participate in superannuation benefits provided under the regulations out of moneys provided by Parliament, who were previously entitled to participate in superannuation benefits provided by that authority or person or to which that authority or person was liable to contribute, or for the transfer to the Minister, in lieu of such payment, of any fund or part of a fund or policy of insurance previously maintained for the purpose of providing superannuation benefits to persons who become entitled to participate in superannuation benefits provided under the regulations out of moneys provided by Parliament;
(f) for the payment of transfer value by the Minister in respect of persons leaving employment entitling them to participate in superannuation benefits provided under the regulations out of moneys provided by Parliament and entering employment entitling them to participate in superannuation benefits otherwise provided;
(g) for making special provision for special classes of persons;
(h) for granting to persons who, immediately before becoming entitled to participate in superannuation benefits provided under or by virtue of the regulations, were entitled to participate in other superannuation benefits, an option to retain rights corresponding with those previously enjoyed by them in lieu of the rights which they would otherwise enjoy under or by virtue of the regulations;
(i) for the determination of all questions arising under the regulations by the Minister;
(k ) for such provisions supplementary to and consequential on the matters aforesaid as appear to the Minister to be necessary, including provisions for adapting, modifying or repealing any Acts of Parliament, whether public general, local or private, or any such local Act schemes as aforesaid so far as appears to the Minister to be necessary in consequence of the regulations.
(2) If the Minister and a Secretary of State are satisfied that any Act for the time being in force in Scotland or in Northern Ireland makes provision with respect to the superannuation of persons employed in health services in Scotland or Northern Ireland which is substantially similar to the provision made under this section, they may make regulations with respect to the rights and liabilities of any person who leaves’ employment in Scotland or Northern Ireland entitling him to participate in superannuation benefits (whether provided under the said Act or otherwise) and enters into employment in respect of which superannuation benefits are provided under regulations made under subsection (1) of this section or into the employment of a local health authority in respect of which superannuation benefits are provided under the Local Government Superannuation Act, 1937, as extended or modified by the regulations, or under a local Act scheme as so extended or modified, and vice versa, and with respect to the rights and liabilities of the Minister, the Secretary of State and other authorities concerned.

68.-(1) Regulations shall provide-
(a) for the transfer of officers employed immediately before the appointed day solely or mainly at or for the purposes of any, hospital transferred to the Minister by virtue of this Act, to the Regional Hospital Board for the area in which the hospital is situated or, in the case of a teaching hospital, to the Board of Governors of that hospital, subject, in the case of honorary officers, to such exceptions and conditions as may be prescribed;
(b) for the transfer of officers employed immediately before the appointed day solely or mainly at or for the purposes of a medical or dental school for which a new governing body is constituted under Part IIof this Act, to that governing body;
(c) for the transfer of officers employed immediately before the appointed day by the Common Council of the City of London, the council of a metropolitan borough or the council of a county district solely or mainly for the purposes of functions transferred from that council to a local health authority, to that authority;
(d) for the transfer of officers employed immediately before the appointed day by the insurance committee for any county or county borough to the Executive Council for the area comprising that county or county borough;
(e) for the payment of compensation subject to any prescribed exceptions or conditions, by the Minister or such local health authority or other local authority as may be prescribed, to persons who immediately before the appointed day-
(i) devoted the whole of their time to employment by the governing body of a voluntary hospital, a local authority, an insurance committee or any such other body as may be prescribed, or to any combination of such employments; and
(ii) were employed for at least part of their time for the purposes of any hospital transferred to the Minister by virtue of this Act or for the purposes of functions which cease, or are trans­ferred from the employing authority or body, in consequence of this Act, and who suffer loss of employment or loss or diminution of emoluments which is attributable to the passing of this Act;
(j) for the payment of compensation subject to any prescribed exceptions or conditions by the Minister or the appropriate authority to officers who, having before the appointed day been employed in the employment mentioned in paragraph (e) hereof, would have been in that employment immediately before that day but for any war service in which they have been engaged; and
(g) for the determination of all questions arising under the regulations.
(2) This section shall-
(i) apply, in the case of an officer employed immediately before the appointed day solely or mainly for the purposes of two or more hospitals, not all of which will be administered by the same Regional Hospital Board or Board of Governors, with the modification that the Board to whom the officer is to be transferred shall be determined by the Minister ;
(ii)apply in relation to a joint insurance committee con­stituted under section ninety-four of the National Health Insurance Act, 1936, as it applies to an insurance committee for a county or county borough, with the modification that the Executive Council to whom any officer is to be transferred shall be determined by the Minister,
and the expression ‘war service” in this section means service in any of His Majesty’s forces and such other employment as may be prescribed .

69.-(1) Regulations may make such provision consequential on or supplementary to the transfer of any functions by virtue of this Act from the Common Council of the City of London, the council of a metropolitan borough or the council of a county district to a local health authority as appears to the Minister to be necessary or expedient, and in particular, but without prejudice to the generality of this subsection regulations may provide- ‘
(a) for the transfer to the local health authority of property and liabilities held or incurred for the purposes of the said functions;
(b) for the making of adjustments between the local health authority and the council from whom the functions were transferred in relation to the said property and liabilities, including the making of payments by the said authority or council;
(c) for the amendment of documents relating to the said property and liabilities to such extent as appears to the Minister to be necessary for the purposes of such transfer;
(d) for enabling any proceedings pending on the appointed day with respect to any such functions, property or liabilities to be carried on by or against the local health authority;
(e) for continuing in force anything done by or in relation to the authority from whom any functions were so transferred; and
(f) for the determination of questions arising in relation to the matters aforesaid.
(2) Regulations may also provide-
(a) for the transfer of property and liabilities to an Execu­tive Council from the insurance committee for any county or county borough comprised in the area of the Council, and for the amendment of any contracts or other documents relating thereto to such extent as appears to the Minister to be necessary for the purposes of such transfer;
(b) for the transfer of property and liabilities to the Minister from the Dental Benefit Council constituted under the National Health Insurance Act, 1936, and the Committee approved for the purpose of adminis­tering ophthalmic benefit under that Act, and for the amendment of contracts and other documents to such extent as appears to the Minister to be necessary for the purposes of such transfer;
(c) for enabling any proceedings pending with respect to any such property or liabilities to be carried on by or against the Executive Council or the Minister as the case may be; and
(d) for the determination of questions arising in relation to the matters aforesaid.
This subsection shall apply in relation to a joint insurance committee constituted under section ninety-four of the National Health Insurance Act, 1936, as it applies in relation to an insurance committee for a county or county borough, with the modification that the Executive Council to whom any property, right or liability is to be transferred, or by or against whom any proceedings are to be carried on, shall be determined by the Minister.

  1. The Minister may cause an inquiry to be held in any case where he deems it advisable to do so in connection with any matter arising under this Act, and subsections (2) to (5) of section two hundred and ninety of the Local Government Act, 1933, shall apply to any inquiry held under this Act:
    Provided that no local authority shall be ordered to pay costs under subsection (4) of that section in the case of any inquiry unless it is a party thereto.

  2. All charges recoverable under this Act by the Minister, a local health authority or any body constituted under this Act, may, without prejudice to any other method of recovery, be recovered summarily as a civil debt.

  3. Section two hundred and sixty-five of the Public Health Act, 1875 (which relates to the protection of members and officers of certain authorities) shall have effect as if there were included among the authorities therein referred to a Regional Hospital Board, the Board of Governors of a teaching hospital, a Hospital Management Committee, a local health authority and an Executive Council, and as if any reference in that section to the Public Health Act, 1875, included a reference to this Act.

  4. Stamp duty shall not be chargeable on any draft, order or receipt given by or to an Executive Council in respect of money payable in pursuance of this Act, or on any agreement entered into by any person with an Executive Council for the provision of services under Part IV of this Act, or on any document required in connection with the transfer of property or liabilities from an insurance committee to an Executive Council.

  5. Regulations may make provision for all or any of the following matters :
    (a) for prescribing the forms of notices and other documents, and the manner of service of notices and other documents;
    (b) for prescribing the manner in which documents may be executed or proved;
    (c) for prescribing the manner in which resolutions of local health authorities and any bodies constituted under this Act are to be proved;
    (d) for exempting judges and justices of the peace from disqualification by their liability to rates.
    orders made under subsection (2) of section two or section seventy-seven of this Act and such of the orders made under subsection (1) of section eleven of this Act as determine the areas for which Regional Hospital Boards are to be consti­tuted shall be laid before Parliament immediately after they are made, and if either House of Parliament, within the period of forty days beginning with the day on which any such regu­lations or order are or is laid before it, resolves that the regu­lations or order be annulled, the regulations or order shall cease to have effect, but without prejudice to anything pre­viously done thereunder or to the making of new regulations or a new order.
    In reckoning any such period of forty days, no account shall be taken of any time during which Parliament is dis­solved or prorogued or during which both Houses are adjourned for more than four days.
    (3) Any power conferred on the Minister by this Act to make regulations shall, if the Treasury so direct, not be exercisable except in conjunction with the Treasury.
    (4) Any order made by the Minister under this Act may be varied or revoked by a subsequent order of the Minister made in like manner and subject to the like conditions as the original order.
    (5) Section one of the Rules Publication Act, 1893 (which requires notice to be given of a proposal to make Statutory Rules) shall not apply to any such regulations or order as aforesaid.

75.-(1) No regulations shall be made under section sixty-seven or section sixty-eight of this Act unless a draft of the regulations has been laid before Parliament and has been approved by resolution of each House of Parliament.
(2) All regulations made under this Act, except regulations made under section sixty-seven or section sixty-eight, and all orders made under subsection (2) of section two or section seventy-seven of this Act and such of the orders made under subsection (1) of section eleven of this Act as determine the areas for which Regional Hospital Boards are to be consti­tuted shall be laid before Parliament immediately after they are made, and if either House of Parliament, within the period of forty days beginning with the day on which any such regulations or order are or is laid before it, resolves that the regulations or order be annulled, the regulations or order shall cease to have effect, but without prejudice to anything previously done thereunder or to the making of new regulations or a new order.
In reckoning any such period of forty days, no account shall be taken of any time during which Parliament is dis­solved or prorogued or during which both Houses are adjourned for more than four days.
(3) Any power conferred on the Minister by this Act to make regulations shall, if the Treasury so direct, not be exercisable except in conjunction with the Treasury.
(4) Any order made by the Minister under this Act may be varied or revoked by a subsequent order of the Minister made in like manner and subject to the like conditions as the original order.
(5) Section one of the Rules Publication Act, 1893 (which requires notice to be given of a proposal to make Statutory Rules) shall not apply to any such regulations or order as aforesaid.

  1. As from the appointed day, the enactments specified in Part I of the Tenth Schedule to this Act shall be amended to the extent therein specified, and the enactments specified in Part II of the said Schedule shall be repealed to the extent specified in the third column of that Part, such amendment and repeal being required in conse­quence of the passing of this Act or for the purpose of bringing the said enactments into conformity with the provisions of this Act.

77.-(1) Where at the passing of this Act there is in force a local or private Act or charter containing provisions appearing to the Minister either to be inconsistent with any of the provisions of this Act or to be redundant in consequence of the passing of this Act, the Minister may by order make such alterations, whether by amendment or by repeal, in the local or private Act or charter as appear to him to be necessary for the purpose of bringing its provisions into conformity with the provisions of this Act, or for the purpose of removing redundant provisions, as the case may be.
(2) Any provision of a local or private Act or charter defining or restricting the objects of any hospital to which section six of this Act applies or the purposes for which any property transferred to the Minister or the Board of Governors of a teaching hospital by virtue of this Act may be used shall cease to have effect.

78.-(1) The following bodies, that is to say-
(a) visiting committees constituted under section seven of the Mental Treatment Act, 1930, joint visiting committees constituted under section two hundred and fifty-three of the Lunacy Act, 1890, joint mental hospital boards constituted under any local Act, committees constituted under section twenty-eight of the Mental Deficiency Act, 1913, for the care of the mentally defective and joint boards and joint committees constituted under section twenty-nine of that Act;
(b) joint boards constituted under the Public Health Act, 1936, or any enactment repealed by that Act, solely for the purpose of exercising functions which cease to be exercisable in consequence of this Act or are transferred to a local health authority or other person by this Act; and
(c) governing bodies of voluntary hospitals transferred to the Minister by virtue of this Act whose· functions wholly cease in consequence of this Act;
shall as from the appointed day be dissolved, and regulations may make such provision, supplementary to the provisions of this Act, as may be necessary for the purpose of winding up the affairs of those bodies.
(2) Without prejudice to the provisions of the last foregoing subsection, regulations may provide that any rights or liabilities of any of the bodies referred to in paragraphs (a) and (b) of the last foregoing subsection under any enactment, scheme or contract providing for the payment of or contribution towards, superannuation benefits in respect of officers employed by those bodies, being rights and liabilities arising in respect of officers who have ceased to be so employed before the appointed day, shall as from that day be transferred to the local authorities by whom the said bodies were appointed or, in the case of joint committees or joint boards, be apportioned among the constituent authorities of those committees or boards.

79.-(1) In this Act unless the context otherwise requires, the following expressions have the meanings hereby assigned to them-
“appointed day” means such day as His Majesty may by Order-in-Council appoint, and different days may be appointed for the purposes of different provisions of this Act and for the repeal or amendment of different enactments by this Act;
”certified midwife” means a person certified under the Midwives Acts, 1902 to 1936;
”dental practitioner” means a person registered in the dentists register under the Dentists Acts, 1878 to 1923;
”dispensing optician” means a person having the pre­scribed qualifications for the fitting and supply of optical appliances;
“equipment” includes any machinery, apparatus or appliance, whether fixed or not, and any vehicle;
”the governing body”, in relation to any voluntary hospital, includes any body, whether corporate or unincorporate, having the control and. management of the hospital or any part thereof or otherwise carrying on the business of the hospital or any part thereof ;
”hospital” means any institution for the reception and treatment of persons suffering from illness or mental defectiveness, any maternity home, and any institution for the reception and treatment of persons during convalescence or persons requiring medical rehabilitation, and includes clinics, dispensaries and out-patient departments maintained in connection with any such institution or home as aforesaid, and ”hospital accommodation” shall be construed accordingly;
”illness” includes mental illness and any injury or disability requiring medical or dental treatment or nursing;
”insurance committee” means an insurance committee constituted under the National Health Insurance Act, 1936;
”local authority” means the council of a county or county borough, the Common Council of the City of London, the council of a metropolitan borough and the council of a county district, and also includes-
(a) any joint board constituted under the Public Health Act, 1936, or under the Public Health (London) Act, 1936, or any. enactment repealed by those Acts, or any port health authority constituted under those Acts or under. any Act passed before those Acts;
(b) any visiting committee constituted. under section seven of the Mental Treatment Act, 1930, any joint visiting committee constituted under section two hundred and fifty-three of the Lunacy Act, 1890, any joint mental hospital board constituted under any local Act, any committee constituted under section twenty-eight of the Mental Deficiency Act, 1913, and any joint board or joint committee constituted under section twenty-nine of that Act;
(c) the King Edward VII Welsh National Memorial Association ;
“local education authority” has the same meaning as in the Education Act, 1944;
“medical” includes surgical;
”medical practitioner” means a registered medical practitioner;
“medicine” includes any prescribed chemical reagent;
“officer” includes servant;
“ophthalmic optician” means a person having the pre­scribed qualifications in optics, including the measurement of errors of refraction, in orthoptics and in the fitting and supply of optical appliances;
“patient” includes an expectant or nursing mother and a lying-in woman;
”prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made by the Minister under this Act;
”property” includes rights;
“registered nurse” mean a nurse registered in the register of nurses established under the Nurses Registration Act, 1919;
”registered pharmacist” means a pharmacist registered in the register of pharmaceutical chemists or the register of chemists and druggists;
“regulations” means regulations made by the Minister under this Act;
“superannuation benefits” means annual superannua­tion allowances, gratuities and periodical payments payable on retirement, death or incapacity, and similar benefits;
”teaching hospital” means a hospital or group of hospitals designated by the Minister as a teaching hospital by an order in force under Part II of this Act;
“university” includes a university college;
”voluntary” means not carried on for profit and not provided by a local or public authority.
(2)References in this Act to the purposes of a hospital shall be construed as referring both to the general purposes of the hospital and to any specific purpose of the hospital.
(3) Any reference in this Act to any enactment shall be construed as a reference to that enactment as amended by any subsequent enactment including this Act.

80.-(1) This Act may be cited as the National Health Service Act, 1946.
(2) This Act, except subsection (2) of section sixty-seven and the amendment made by the Ninth Schedule in sub-section (3) of section eight of the Criminal Lunatics Act, 1884, shall not extend to Scotland or to Northern Ireland.
(3) The Minister may by order direct that this Act shall, subject to such exceptions, adaptations and modifications, as may be specified in the order, extend to the Isles of Scilly, but except as so applied this Act shall not extend to the said Isles.
The Minister may by any such order amend or repeal any provisions contained in the Isles of Scilly Orders, 1927 to 1943.