The Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1991

[F1Health and Social Care trusts]N.I.

10.—[F2(1) Subject to paragraph (2), the Department may by order establish bodies, to be known as [F1Health and Social Care trusts] (in this Order referred to as [F3HSC trusts])—

(a)to provide goods and services for the purposes of the health and [F4social care]; F5...

[F6(b)to exercise social care and children functions (see Article 10A); or

(c)to exercise, on behalf of the Department, such functions as the Department may direct under Article 10B.]

[F7(2) Before making an order under paragraph (1), the Department shall consult—

(a)the Patient and Client Council, and

(b)such other persons and bodies as the Department considers appropriate.]]

(3) In F8...Articles 11 to 13 and Schedule 3 “a relevant body” means—

F9[F10(a). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(aa)the Regional Agency;

(b)RBSO; or]

(c)a special agency.

(4) Every [F11HSC trust]—

(a)shall be a body corporate having a board of directors consisting of a chairman appointed by the Department and, subject to paragraph 5(2) of Schedule 3, executive and non-executive directors (that is to say, directors who, subject to paragraph (6), respectively are and are not employees of the trust);

(b)shall have the functions conferred on it by an order under paragraph (1) and by Schedule 3; and

(c)shall be a body to which section 19 of the Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954F12 applies.

[F2(5) The functions which may be specified in an order under paragraph (1) include a duty to provide goods or services so specified at or from a hospital or other establishment or facility so specified.]

[F13(5A) The functions of an [F11HSC trust] also include power to provide services in accordance with arrangements made under Article 15B of the principal Order, and to do so as a member of a qualifying body (within the meaning of Article 15C of that Order).]

(6) The Department may by regulations make general provision with respect to—

(a)the qualifications for and the tenure of office of the chairman and directors of an [F11HSC trust] (including the circumstances in which they shall cease to hold, or may be removed from, office or may be suspended from performing the functions of the office);

(b)the persons by whom the directors and any of the officers are to be appointed and the manner of their appointment;

(c)the maximum and minimum numbers of the directors;

(d)the circumstances in which a person who is not an employee of the trust is nevertheless, on appointment as a director, to be regarded as an executive rather than a non-executive director;

(e)the proceedings of the trust (including the validation of proceedings in the event of a vacancy or defect in appointment); and

(f)the appointment, constitution and exercise of functions by committees and sub-committees of the trust (whether or not consisting of or including any members of the board);

and, without prejudice to the generality of the power, any such regulations may make provision to deal with cases where the post of any officer of an [F11HSC trust] is held jointly by two or more persons or where the functions of such an officer are in any other way performed by more than one person.

(7) Part I of Schedule 3 shall have effect with respect to orders under paragraph (1); Part II of that Schedule shall have effect, subject to paragraph (8), with respect to the general duties and the powers and status of [F3HSC trusts]; the supplementary provisions of Part III of that Schedule shall have effect; and Part IV of that Schedule shall have effect with respect to the dissolution of [F3HSC trusts].

[F2(8) A power conferred by paragraph 14 or 15 of Part II of Schedule 3 may only be exercised—

(a)to the extent that its exercise does not to any significant extent interfere with the performance by the [F11HSC trust] of its functions or of its obligations under [F14HSC contracts]; and

(b)in circumstances specified in directions under paragraph 6 of that Schedule, with the consent of the Department.]

(9) The Department may by order confer on [F3HSC trusts] specific powers additional to those contained in paragraphs 10 to 15 of Schedule 3.