Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) These regulations may be cited as the Local Commissioning Groups (Number, Area and Functions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009 and shall come into operation on 1st April 2009.

(2) In these regulations—

“the Act” means the Health and Social Care (Reform) Act (Northern Ireland) 2009;

“Local Commissioning Group” means a committee referred to in section 9(1) of the Act;

“Local Government District” has the same meaning as in section 1 of the Local Government (Boundaries) Act (Northern Ireland) 1971(2).

Number and area of Local Commissioning Groups

2.—(1) For the purposes of section 9(1) of the Act the prescribed number of Local Commissioning Groups shall be 5.

(2) The name of each Local Commissioning Group shall be the name specified in column 1 of the Schedule and the area of that Group shall be the area of the local government districts specified opposite the name of that Group in column 2 of the Schedule.

Functions of Local Commissioning Groups

3.  Each Local Commissioning Group shall exercise the following functions with respect to the commissioning of health and social care for people in its area—

(a)assessing health and social care needs;

(b)planning health and social care to meet current and emerging needs;

(c)securing the delivery of health and social care to meet assessed needs.

Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety on 12th March 2009

Linda Devlin

A senior officer of the

Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety

Regulation 2(2)

SCHEDULENames and areas of Local Commissioning Groups

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the regulations)

These regulations prescribe the number of Local Commissioning Groups to be appointed by the Regional Health and Social Care Board established under the Health and Social Care (Reform) Act (Northern Ireland) 2009 (regulation 2(1)). They also prescribe the areas of the Local Commissioning Groups (regulation 2(2)) and the functions they will exercise with respect to the commissioning of health and social care (regulation 3).