Licensing requirement
Section 81 - Requirement for health service providers to be licensed
746.Subsection (1) stipulates that providers of health care services for the purposes of the NHS must hold a licence issued by Monitor. This does not include services provided for the purposes of the public health service.
747.Subsection (2) covers situations in which two or more legal persons are involved, in different capacities, in providing a service (eg. a prime contractor and subcontractor). It provides that, in this situation, regulations may set out who will be treated as the service provider for the purposes of the licensing regime. It is intended that this will be the person responsible for ensuring the service complies with the licensing requirements laid out in this (and any other relevant) legislation (eg. the prime contractor). This provision is based on section 10(2) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008, where the same provision is made for the purposes of registration with the Care Quality Commission.
Section 82 - Deemed breach of requirement to be licensed
748.This section provides that a licence holder is deemed to be in breach of the requirement to hold a licence if the organisation is required to register with the Care Quality Commission, but has not done so. The intention is that only providers who have complied with a requirement to register with the Care Quality Commission should be able to hold a licence.
Section 83 - Exemption regulations
749.This section provides the power for the Secretary of State to make regulations exempting providers of NHS services from the requirement to hold a licence. The regulations would be subject to the negative resolution procedure in both Houses of Parliament.
750.Individuals, groups of providers, or providers of certain types of health care services could be exempted. Exemptions could be time-limited, and/or conditional. Subsection (3) gives examples of the sorts of conditions that could attach to an exemption. For example, a person granted an exemption may be required to comply with any direction given by Monitor about a matter specified in the exemption.
751.The intention is that exemptions will be used to focus licensing on appropriate parts of the health care sector - those where regulation of competition and pricing, or action to support continuity of services is most likely to have a strong positive impact. It is, for example, likely that the licensing regime would cover providers of accident and emergency services and secure mental health services. Exemptions might apply to, for example, smaller providers of family health services such as dentists, optometrists or primary medical care practices.
752.Subsections (4) to (7) provide for publication of the Secretary of State’s intention to make exemption regulations and for representations to be made. The Secretary of State would have to give specific notice to Monitor, the NHS Commissioning Board, the Care Quality Commission and Healthwatch England (provided for in Chapter 1 of Part 5), as well as publishing more widely the proposal to make regulations, the effect of the regulations and the reasons for them. There must be a minimum period of 28 days, during which representations could be made, before the Secretary of State can make the regulations.
753.Subsection (8) provides that persons granted an exemption must be given notice of it. The Secretary of State must also publish exemptions granted.
Section 84 - Exemption regulations: supplementary
754.This section provides a mechanism for the Secretary of State to revoke or withdraw licensing exemptions. Subsection (1) provides that the exemption regulations themselves could be revoked in relation to an exemption granted to an individual provider, or amended in relation to regulations granting individual exemptions to more than one provider to enable any of the exemptions to be withdrawn. The Secretary of State can revoke or withdraw an exemption at the request of the provider, in accordance with the relevant exemption regulations themselves (for example if they provided for a conditional exemption), or if the Secretary of State considers it inappropriate for the exemption to continue.
755.Subsection (2) provides that exemption regulations granting an exemption to a group of providers could be revoked. Exemption regulations granting exemptions to more than one group of providers could also be amended to withdraw any of the exemptions. An exemption could be revoked or withdrawn either in accordance with the relevant exemption regulations themselves, or if the Secretary of State considers it inappropriate for the exemption to continue.
756.Under subsection (3), the Secretary of State may by direction, withdraw an exemption for a particular provider within a group, whilst the exemption remained in place for the rest of that group. This may be done in accordance with the relevant exemption regulations, if the Secretary of State considered it inappropriate for the exemption to continue, or at the request of an individual provider.
757.When the exemption revocation or withdrawal is not at an individual provider’s request, the Secretary of State must consult Monitor, the NHS Commissioning Board, the Care Quality Commission and Healthwatch England about the proposed withdrawal. If the exemption applies to an individual provider or providers within a group or type of providers that would remain exempt, the Secretary of State must also give notice to the provider(s) from whom he proposes to remove the exemption. If the exemption applied to a group or type of provider the notice of the proposal to remove the exemption must be published. The notice must state the Secretary of State’s proposal and reasons for it, and specify a minimum 28-day period during which representations can be made.
