Office of Public Sector Information
468.This section inserts sections 78A and 78B into the Local Government Act 2000 in respect of case tribunals in England. Section 78A provides a new power for the Secretary of State to make regulations concerning the sanctions which a case tribunal can impose. Section 78B provides that a case tribunal must give notice of its decision on a case to the Standards Board, the member who is the subject of the allegation, and the person who made the allegation. The case tribunal must also publish its decision in one or more local newspapers. New provision is also made for an appeal to the High Court against a decision by a case tribunal only to be possible where the permission of the High Court has been given.
469.This section amends section 79 of the Local Government Act 2000 to make provision in respect of case tribunals in Wales, including defining what is meant by the term ‘Welsh case tribunal’ and setting out the provisions with respect to decisions made by case tribunals which should apply in respect of Welsh case tribunals.
470.This section inserts new sub-sections 31(7) and (8) of the Data Protection Act 1998 to provide that personal data processed by a monitoring officer, an ethical standards officer or the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales for the purpose of discharging any function under Part 3 of the Local Government Act 2000 are exempt from the subject information provisions of the Act to the extent to which the application of those provisions to the data would be likely to prejudice the proper discharge of that function.
471.This section makes supplementary and consequential provision, including allowing for the disclosure of information obtained by the Audit Commission or an auditor for the purposes of the functions of a monitoring officer.
472.The Local Government and Housing Act 1989 provides that a person is disqualified from becoming a member of a local authority if he or she holds a politically restricted post. This section amends the 1989 Act so that the granting and supervision of exemptions from the political restriction will be the responsibility of the standards committee of each local authority in England, rather than that of the Independent Adjudicator. The section also provides that the Secretary of State may issue general advice with regard to the making of decisions on political restrictions. Before giving such general advice, the Secretary of State must consult those representatives of local government he considers appropriate.
473.This section makes consequential amendments to the Local Government and Housing Act 1989, the Environment Act 1995 and the Greater London Authority Act 1999 to ensure that the new arrangements are compatible with existing legislation.
474.This section provides for the Secretary of State to make an order in relation to England which will specify the maximum pay of political assistants by reference to a point on a relevant pay scale. Welsh Ministers may make such an order in relation to Wales.
475.Sections 205 to 211 concern the establishment of joint waste authorities. The provisions allow two or more local authorities to submit a proposal to the Secretary of State for the creation of a joint waste authority to discharge some, or all, of their waste functions (collection, disposal and/or street cleansing) through that authority. The decision to make a proposal to form a joint waste authority is a voluntary one. The Secretary of State may then implement the proposal, with or without limited modifications, by order.
476.The Secretary of State may issue guidance to advise authorities on what proposals for joint waste authorities should seek to achieve and the issues that authorities should consider when preparing proposals. The Secretary of State may also make regulations that set out what matters the proposals must cover and what information must accompany them.
477.The provisions give the Secretary of State the power to implement proposals by order, with or without modifications. However, the Secretary of State may not establish a joint waste authority for an area other than that specified in the proposal or to discharge functions other than those specified in the proposal.
478.The Secretary of State has the power to dissolve a joint waste authority in two circumstances: where all the member authorities have requested him to do so; or where he considers it necessary to do so.
479.This section provides for local authorities to make proposals to create joint waste authorities in England and sets out the requirements for those proposals. Subsection (2) provides that a proposal may be made only by all the local authorities that are local waste authorities for the area specified in the proposal. Subsection (3) defines local waste authority for the purpose of subsection (2). Subsection (4) provides that a proposal may not be made if there is a local authority for the whole of the specified area which has all of the specified functions.
480.Subsection (5) provides that the Secretary of State may make regulations on the matters to be included in a proposal and information that is required to accompany a proposal. Subsection (6) provides further detail on the scope of the regulations made by the Secretary of State, such that they could require proposals to provide detail on the membership of joint waste authorities; procedures for appointing chairman and vice-chairman; and how costs of the proposed authority will be met by each of the local authorities.
481.Subsection (7) requires local authorities to have regard to any guidance issued by the Secretary of State as to what a proposal should seek to achieve and matters that should be considered when making a proposal. Subsection (8) sets out definitions for the section. Subsection (9) defines local authority for the purposes of this Part.
482.Subsection (1) requires local authorities to consult relevant electors and any interested person in their area on a draft of the proposal. Subsection (2) defines ‘relevant electors’ for the purpose of subsection (1). Subsection (3) defines ‘local government electors’ for the purpose of subsection (2).
483.Subsection (1) provides that the Secretary of State may implement a proposal for a joint waste authority in England by order with or without modification. Subsection (2) provides that any authority established under subsection (1) shall be referred to in this Part as a ‘joint waste authority’.
484.Subsection (3) allows the Secretary of State, in the order establishing the joint waste authority, to make provision enabling him to require that authority to submit a scheme for winding-up that authority, and for the transfer of its functions, property and staff, rights and liabilities, to appropriate local authorities. Subsection (4) allows the Secretary of State to implement any scheme submitted under subsection (3) by order to dissolve an authority. Subsection (5) sets out the limitations to the Secretary of State’s powers under subsection (4) such that the Secretary of State can only dissolve an authority where a request is received from all the constituent local authorities or he considers it necessary to do so.
485.Subsection (6) provides that once an authority has been established the Secretary of State can by order exclude functions for which it has been established.
486.Subsection (7) allows incidental, consequential, transitional or supplementary provisions to be included in orders made under this section. Subsection (8) expands on the type of provisions that might be made under subsection (7), this would allow for provisions to address the details of the transfer of property, rights, liabilities, staff, other staffing matters, such as pensions, from constituent authorities to a joint waste authority, and ensure that any outstanding legal action regarding these matters is also transferred.
487.Subsection (10) sets out the limitations to the Secretary of State’s powers under subsection (1). The Secretary of State cannot establish a joint waste authority for an area that is different from the area specified in the proposal, or establish a joint waste authority to discharge functions that are not specified in the proposal.
488.Subsection (11) sets out definitions of ‘appropriate local authority’ and ‘waste functions’ for the section.
489.This section sets out the requirements for membership of joint waste authorities.
490.This section sets out the necessary consequential amendments. Subsection (1) amends section 24 of the Waste and Emissions Trading Act 2003 to make joint waste authorities in England that have the disposal function waste disposal authorities for the purposes of the 2003 Act. Subsection (2) provides that other consequential amendments relating to joint waste authorities are provided in Schedule 13.
491.Subsection (1) provides that the Welsh Ministers may by order make provision which apply sections 205 to 208 in relation to Wales. Such an order may also apply any provisions of Part 17 (final provisions), in so far as those provisions relate to sections 205 to 208. An order under section 210 may apply the provisions of sections 205 to 208 with such modifications as the Welsh Ministers consider appropriate.
492.Subsection (2) allows incidental, consequential or supplementary provisions to be included in orders made under this section. These provisions may amend or modify any enactment or any instrument made under any enactment.
493.This section sets out definitions for this Part of the Act for ‘joint waste authority’ and ‘local authority’.
494.This Part replaces Part V of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989, which places propriety controls in relation to certain categories of local authority companies. Part 12 ensures that propriety controls may now be applied in relation to the wider range of entities through which local authorities in England and Wales now operate, rather than just to local authority companies. This Part allows for propriety controls to be applied to those entities in respect of which financial information must be included in the local authority’s statement of accounts. Provision is also made to define terms in other enactments that currently rely on definitions in Part V of the 1989 Act.
495.Section 212 provides power for the Secretary of State, or Welsh Ministers (in relation to Welsh local authorities), to make an order requiring, prohibiting or regulating the taking of specified actions by entities connected with an English local authority. An Order may also require, prohibit or regulate the taking of specified actions by a local authority or certain members or officers of a local authority.
496.Orders made under the power may relate to all English (or Welsh) local authorities, authorities of particular descriptions or particular authorities. Orders may make provision in relation to all entities connected with a local authority or entities of a particular description.
497.Local authorities are defined as those bodies which are required to prepare a statement of accounts by regulations made under section 27 of the Audit Commission Act 1998 or section 39 of the Public Audit (Wales) Act 2004 in accordance with proper practices and are local authorities for the purposes of section 21 of the Local Government Act 2003 (accounting practices). Proper practices under section 21 of the Local Government Act 2003 are defined, by virtue of secondary legislation, as including the Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the United Kingdom – A Statement of Recommended Practice (“SORP”) as published by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accounting (CIPFA).
498.An entity is stated to be “connected with” a local authority if financial information about that entity must be included in the local authority’s statement of accounts. For the purposes of this Part, a local authority itself does not qualify as such an entity.
499.It is intended to use the Order making powers to enable propriety controls to apply to the wider range of entities through which local authorities in England and Wales now operate rather than just to local authority companies as currently defined in Part V of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 (and the Local Authorities (Companies) Order 1995 made under this part).
500.Section 213 brings trusts and trustees within the provisions that can be made under Section 212.
501.Section 214 makes further provision as to what an Order made under Section 212 may include. An Order may require an entity, a local authority or trustees to obtain the consent of the Audit Commission (in England), or the Auditor General for Wales (in Wales), before taking a particular action.
502.Under Section 214(3) an Order may also require a local authority to make arrangements for enabling questions to be put to certain members or officers of the authority including those who are members, directors or holders of specified positions with the entity concerned. An Order under this power may prescribe circumstances in which a local authority would be prohibited from taking action which would permit a person becoming a member, director, or holder of a specified position in relation to an entity. An Order may also require an authority to ensure that, as far as practicable, entities connected with that authority comply with the provisions of any Order applicable to them. Section 214(4) makes provisions in relation to trusts and trustees which corresponds to the provisions in Section 214(3).
503.Where an Order makes provision in relation to entities, trusts, or trustees, of a particular description it may provide for any expression used in identifying the description of the entity to have the meaning given, for the time being, by a “relevant document” identified by the Order. Section 214(7) defines a relevant document as a document which has been identified as proper practices for the purposes of section 21(2)(b) of the Local Government Act 2003 by regulations made under section 21 of that Act. The intention is that descriptions are able to be based on documents such as those setting out standard local authority accounting practices, for example SORP, without needing to amend the Order where changes are made to such documents.
504.Section 215 provides the Secretary of State (in England), and Welsh Ministers (in Wales), with a power to give a Direction exempting an entity or a particular description of entities from any Order made under Section 212. A Direction may be time limited, may contain conditions and is capable of being varied or revoked by a subsequent Direction. A Direction may also be made in relation to trusts or trustees.
505.Section 216 repeals Part V of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 and brings into effect Schedule 14 (other consequential amendments). Section 216(3) – 216(5) provide that amendments made in statutory instruments as a result of the repeal of Part V of the 1989 Act may provide for an expression used to have the meaning given, for the time being, by a document which has been identified as proper practices for the purposes of section 21(2)(b) of the Local Government Act 2003 by regulations made under section 21 of that Act. The intention, as with Orders made under section 212, is that descriptions are able to be based on documents such as those setting out standard local authority accounting practices, for example SORP, without needing to amend the Order where changes are made to such documents.
506.Schedule 14 to the Act makes a number of consequential amendments to replace references in other legislation to Part V of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989. Section 217 provides a power for the Secretary of State by Order to define the terms included, by Schedule 14, in those other enactments. The Order may provide for the definitions inserted by Schedule 14 to have the meaning given, for the time being, by a document which has been identified as proper practices for the purposes of section 21(2)(b) of the Local Government Act 2003 by regulations made under section 21 of that Act. The intention, as with Orders made under section 212, is that descriptions are able to be based on documents such as those setting out standard local authority accounting practices, for example SORP, without needing to amend the Order where changes are made to such documents. Section 218 makes similar provision for Welsh Ministers to define expressions for the purposes of other enactments.
507.Valuation Tribunals (VTs) are independent bodies established under Schedule 11 to the Local Government Finance Act 1988 (the 1988 Act), although they have existed in one form or another since 1948. In particular, they hear appeals in relation to business rating and council tax valuations and liability. There are 56 Tribunals in England, administratively served by the Valuation Tribunal Service (VTS) that was established under the Local Government Act 2003 (the 2003 Act).
508.VTs in England are organised broadly on a county or metropolitan area basis. Members of each VT are appointed jointly by local authorities and the relevant VT President. Chairmen and VT Presidents are elected by the serving membership of the relevant VT.
509.Part 13 of this Act makes provision to replace the 56 VTs in England with a single Valuation Tribunal for England (VTE). It creates the new positions of VTE President and Vice-Presidents, which may be remunerated, and provides that appointments to the VTE be made by the Lord Chancellor on the advice of the Judicial Appointments Commission.
510.Section 219 establishes the VTE (by giving effect to Schedule 15 to the Act), abolishes the 56 VTs created under the 1988 Act and provides for the transfer of jurisdiction.
511.Section 220 makes consequential amendments relating to the establishment of the VTE (by means of Schedule 16 to the Act). It also enables the Secretary of State to make regulations which supplement or give full effect to the establishment of the VTE, including (in particular) the power to make arrangements for appointing VTE members until the Lord Chancellor, on advice from the Judicial Appointments Commission, takes over the role of making those appointments.
512.Section 237 of the National Health Service Act 2006 (‘‘the 2006 Act’’) requires the Secretary of State to continue the establishment of Patients' Forums for NHS trusts, Primary Care Trusts and NHS foundation trusts. The principal role of Patients’ Forums is to monitor and review the provision of health services on behalf of patients.
513.Section 243 of the 2006 Act provides for the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health ("CPPIH"). The CPPIH represents, supports, and manages the performance of, Patients’ Forums. It also has a role in advising the Secretary of State on arrangements for public involvement in, and consultation on, matters relating to the health service.
514.Part 14 of the Act makes provision for the abolition of Patients’ Forums and the CPPIH. In their place, it imposes a duty on local authorities to make contractual arrangements for the involvement of people in the commissioning, provision and scrutiny of health services and social services. It is expected that, under the arrangements, particular bodies (whether existing or newly-created) will be given the task of being the means through which such involvement is achieved. Such a body is referred to as a “local involvement network” (although the Act does not require use of that title).
515.Section 242 of the 2006 Act provides for public involvement and consultation on the planning of the provision of health services, proposals for change in the way that those services are provided and decisions to be made affecting the operation of those services. Section 242 applies to health service bodies in England and Wales. Part 14 of the Act amends section 242 as it applies to certain English health-service bodies. Section 242 also applies to NHS trusts all or most of whose hospitals, establishments and facilities are in Wales: the Act does not alter the way in which sections 242 applies to those trusts.
516.Part 14 amends the 2006 Act so as to impose a duty on Strategic Health Authorities to make arrangements to secure that health service users are involved in matters to be set out in regulations.
517.Part 14 amends the 2006 Act to impose a new duty on each Primary Care Trust and Strategic Health Authority to report on consultation arrangements and the influence that the results of consultation have on commissioning decisions.
518.This section imposes a duty on local authorities to make contractual arrangements for the involvement of people in the commissioning, provision and scrutiny of health and social services.
519.Subsection (1) requires each local authority (as defined in section 229) to ensure there are means in place to facilitate the carrying out of the specified activities (listed under subsection (2)). The specified activities are to promote involvement and provide support for the involvement of people in the commissioning, provision and scrutiny of local care services (as defined in subsection (6)). In addition the specified activities will include enabling people to monitor, and review, the commissioning and provision of local care services for the purpose of considering standards of local care and whether and how they could or ought to be improved. The activities also include obtaining the views of people about their needs for, and experiences of, those services and may involve making reports and recommendations to people responsible for commissioning, providing, managing or scrutinising those services about how local care services could be improved.
520.Subsections (4) and (5) provide that the Secretary of State may, by regulations, add to the activities specified in subsection (2) after consulting with such persons as he considers appropriate.
521.This section contains rules about the arrangements that will be made by the local authority for the purposes of ensuring that there is a means to carry out the activities specified in section 221(2).
522.Subsections (2) to (4) have the effect that the local authority will have to enter into contractual arrangements with another person. That person (referred to as the “host”, although not called that in the Act) must not be a local authority, a National Health Service trust, an NHS foundation trust, a Primary Care Trust or a Strategic Health Authority. In addition, the arrangements must ensure that the host cannot also be a local involvement network (as defined in subsection (2)). In other words, these subsections envisage a chain of three different people: local authority – host – local involvement network.
523.Subsection (4), as well as ensuring that a local involvement network is a person distinct from the host, also specifies – with a view to securing the independence of local involvement networks – that a network must not be any of the following:
a local authority
a National Health Service trust
an NHS foundation trust
a Primary Care Trust or
a Strategic Health Authority
524.Subsection (5) ensures that the arrangements can allow for local involvement networks to work together on a regional or national basis in relation to activities specified in section 221(2).
525.Subsection (6) enables arrangements to include the making of payments by the local authority and subsection (7) provides that arrangements must include the required provision about annual reports (see section 227).
526.This section places a duty on the Secretary of State to make regulations providing that the arrangements made by a local authority must require the host to include prescribed provision in the arrangements that the host makes when setting up a local involvement network. In particular, the regulations may require the local authority to require the host to include provisions relating to the ways certain decisions are to be taken by the local involvement network, the authorisation of individuals able to enter the premises of health and social care providers, the use of money by the local involvement network and the consequences if the local involvement network contravenes any provision of its arrangements with the host.
527.This section allows the Secretary of State to make regulations which will impose a duty on services-providers to respond to requests for information made by local involvement networks and deal with reports or recommendations made by local involvement networks. Before making any regulations, the Secretary of State must consult with such persons as he considers appropriate.
528.The meaning of “services-provider” given in sections 224 and 225 includes certain NHS bodies, local authorities (as defined in section 229) and any other person prescribed in regulations made by the Secretary of State.
529.This section places a duty on the Secretary of State to make regulations imposing a duty on services-providers to allow authorised representatives of local involvement networks to enter and view, and observe the carrying on of activities on, premises owned or controlled by services-providers. Such visits will enable local involvement networks to carry on, in particular, their activities in connection with the scrutiny and monitoring of local care services. Before making these regulations the Secretary of State must consult with appropriate persons.
530.Subsections (2) and (3) provide that the regulations may include provisions which place conditions, restrictions and limitations on the duty to allow entry by local involvement networks. This will allow the regulations to limit local involvement networks’ access to certain premises or in relation to certain activities to ensure patient safety and dignity or to ensure that their viewing of a facility is appropriate to the carrying on of local involvement networks’ activities. Regulations could, for example, limit access to an operating theatre when an operation is taking place. These provisions may require certain conditions to be satisfied before any duty arises, may describe those authorised representatives to whom the duty may or may not apply, may limit the numbers to whom the duty applies or may limit hours during which the duty applies.
531.Subsection (4) provides that any authorised representative entering premises as a result of these regulations must comply with all applicable conditions and restrictions imposed by the regulations.
532.This section provides that where a local involvement network refers a matter relating to social care services to an overview and scrutiny committee, that committee must acknowledge receipt of the referral and keep the referrer informed of the committee’s actions in relation to the matter. This section allows the Secretary of State to make regulations providing for the time in which the committee must acknowledge receipt of such a referral.
533.This section relates only to referrals of social care matters because there are existing regulation-making powers in section 244(2) of the 2006 Act which relate to scrutiny of health services. Together, the existing regulation-making powers, and the provisions of this section, will ensure that overview and scrutiny committees are required to respond to local involvement networks on the health and social care matters that they refer.
534.Subsections (3) to (5) require the committee to decide whether its powers are exercisable in relation to the matter and, if they are, whether or not they are to be exercised. In exercising those powers, the committee must take into account relevant information provided by a local involvement network.
535.This section sets out the required provision about annual reports referred to in section 222(7).
536.Section 222(7) requires that arrangements under section 221(1) entered into by a local authority with a host must include the required provision about annual reports. The arrangements will require that an annual report must be prepared, by each local involvement network put in place by the host, on the activities of the local involvement network in each financial year. Where a local involvement network does not produce an annual report, the arrangements must provide for the host to produce it. The arrangements must also require that the report complies with certain requirements set out in subsection (3), that the report must be prepared by 30 June following the end of each financial year and that copies of it should be made publicly available (having had regard to guidance issued by the Secretary of State that may be in force at the time) and sent to the bodies specified in subsection (4).
537.The requirements set out under subsection (3) are that the report must address such matters as the Secretary of State may direct and must include details of amounts spent in relation to the local involvement network’s activities. Where in any financial year there are activities for which a host is required to, but has not, put in place a local involvement network, the host will be required to prepare a report in relation to those activities, including details of amounts spent on those activities (which are likely to include amounts spent in attempting to put in place a local involvement network to carry on those activities).
538.This section provides for transitional arrangements between the end of Patients’ Forums and the start of local involvement networks. It places a temporary duty on local authorities to ensure that there are means by which the activities specified in section 221(2) can be carried on in their area in the event that contractual arrangements are not yet in place. Regulations will set the period that the temporary duty will last and may set out the ways in which the temporary duty may or may not be complied with (for example, making it clear that local authorities may not perform the activities themselves) and the reporting requirements that are to be imposed on the local authority and any person undertaking the activities under arrangements made by the local authority.
539.Subsection (1) defines “local authority” for the purposes of sections 221 to 228.
540.Subsection (2) gives the Secretary of State power to make incidental, supplementary, consequential, transitory or transitional provision or savings when making regulations under sections 221 to 228.
541.This section abolishes specified functions of Patients’ Forums, the Secretary of State’s regulation-making power to confer rights of entry on members of Patients’ Forums and regulation-making power to make provision about the membership of Patients’ Forums.
542.Subsection (2) makes provision for preparation of final reports and accounts, when the functions of the Patients’ Forums are abolished. Should this happen on a date other than at the end of the financial year, a Patients’ Forum must prepare annual accounts for the final reporting period as if that date were the end of the financial year. The report must be sent to the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health within 2 months of that date.
543.Subsection (3) requires that the final report includes details of anything being done by a Patients’ Forum which is outstanding when these Patients’ Forum functions are abolished.
544.The final reporting period will end when this section comes into force, and runs from the preceding 1 April.
545.A Patients’ Forum is not required to prepare a report or annual accounts in relation to any period after the end of the final reporting period.
546.This section abolishes Patients’ Forums by omitting the provisions of the 2006 Act which establish Patients’ Forums, provide for the appointment of their members and make provisions about Patients’ Forums’ annual reports.
547.Subsection (2) makes provision for the transfer of property, rights and liabilities of each forum to the Secretary of State for Health. Under subsection (3), any legal proceedings relating to anything transferred may be continued by or in relation to the Secretary of State for Health.
548.This section abolishes the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health by omitting the provisions in the 2006 Act which establish the Commission and its functions.
549.Subsection (2) makes provision for the transfer of property, rights and liabilities of the Commission to the Secretary of State for Health. Under subsection (3), any legal proceedings relating to anything transferred may be continued by or in relation to the Secretary of State for Health.
550.Subsections (4) and (5) state that the Secretary of State may fix the Commission’s final reporting period once he is satisfied that the Commission has substantially carried out its function of reviewing Patients’ Forums’ final annual reports.
551.The final reporting period must begin on a 1st April, but can be longer or shorter than a year, as the Secretary of State fixes it.
552.The Commission is not required to prepare a report or annual accounts in relation to any period after the end of the final reporting period.
553.This section amends section 242 of the National Health Service Act 2006 (“the 2006 Act”) which sets out the current duty to involve and consult users of health services. This section also inserts new sections 242A and 242B into the 2006 Act.
554.Section 242 applies to Strategic Health Authorities, Primary Care Trusts, NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts. However, the amendments do not change how section 242 applies to NHS trusts all or most of whose hospitals, establishments and facilities are located in Wales. The amendments do alter how section 242 applies to the rest of the bodies to which the section applies, and the bodies to which the amendments do apply are referred to as “relevant English bodies”. The amendments replace the existing duty imposed by section 242 on relevant English bodies with a new duty to make arrangements to involve the users of health services.
555.The new section 242(1B) provides that relevant English bodies must involve (whether by consultation or provision of information, or in other ways) users of health services in the planning of the provision of services, the development and consideration of proposals for change in the way services are provided and decisions affecting the operation of services. In relation to the development and consideration of proposals for changes to services, or decisions affecting the operation of those services, the duty to involve will arise only where the proposal for change to, or decision affecting the operation of, services would have an impact on the range, or manner of delivery, of services received by the user.
556.New section 242(1G) provides that a relevant English body must have regard to any guidance issued by the Secretary of State as to the discharge of its new duty under that section.
557.New section 242A confers a duty on the Secretary of State to make regulations requiring a Strategic Health Authority to make arrangements to ensure that users of health services are involved in matters specified in regulations. In complying with this duty a Strategic Health Authority must have regard to any guidance issued by the Secretary of State, about how the duty to involve should be carried out and when and how often that involvement should occur.
558.New section 242B gives the Secretary of State the power to make regulations enabling Strategic Health Authorities to give directions, in certain circumstances, to Primary Care Trusts in relation to arrangements that the Primary Care Trust might make for the involvement of patients and the public in accordance with section 242. Those circumstances are where the Strategic Health Authority will be making arrangements for involvement.
559.This section amends the 2006 Act to impose a duty on Strategic Health Authorities and Primary Care Trusts to report, at times directed by the Secretary of State on consultations they have conducted, or intend to conduct, in relation to commissioning decisions for which they are responsible.
560.The reporting duty in respect of Primary Care Trusts will also apply to consultations not undertaken by a Primary Care Trust itself but which have an impact on commissioning decisions.
Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007