Citation, commencement, application and interpretation

1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the NHS Pensions Agency (Asiantaeth Pensiynau'r GIG) (Establishment and Constitution) Order 2004 and shall come into force on 1st April 2004.

(2) This Order applies to England and Wales except for Article 3(b) which applies to England only.

(3) In this Order—

“the Act” means the National Health Service Act 1977; and

“the Agency” means the NHS Pensions Agency (Asiantaeth Pensiynau'r GIG) Special Health Authority established by this Order;

“appropriate authority” means—

“the NHS Pension Scheme” means the National Health Service Pension Scheme for England and Wales(2);

“the 1997 Directions” means the Directions to the Morecambe Bay Health Authority with respect to the calculation of student allowances which came into force on 1st October 1997(3);

“the 1999 Directions” means the Directions to the Morecambe Bay Health Authority with respect to the calculation of student allowances dated 10 February 1999(4);

“the 1997 Agreement” means the Agreement which had effect from 1st October 1997 made between Morecambe Bay Health Authority and Blackpool Victoria Hospital National Health Service Trust(5).

Establishment of the Agency

2.  There is hereby established a Special Health Authority which shall be known—

(a)in English as the NHS Pensions Agency; and

(b)in Welsh as Asianthaeth Pensiynau'r GIG.

Functions of the Agency

3.  Subject to and in accordance with such directions as the appropriate authority may give to the Agency(6), the Agency shall perform such functions in connection with—

(a)the NHS Pension Scheme;

(b)the making of grants, and payment of fees and allowances to persons or bodies with whom arrangements have been made for the provision of instruction under section 63 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968(7); and

(c)such other functions,

as the appropriate authority may direct.

Constitution of the Agency

4.  The Agency shall consist of—

(a)a chairman;

(b)not less than 5 and not more than 7 members who are not officers of the Agency in addition to the chairman; and

(c)not more than 5 members who are officers of the Agency including the persons who for the time being hold the office of Chief Executive and Director of Finance of the Agency.

Remuneration of members

5.  The Agency is hereby specified for the purposes of paragraph 9(7)(b) of Schedule 5 to the Act (definition of “relevant authority” for the purposes of paying remuneration to members of certain Special Health Authorities).

Public meetings

6.  The Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960(8) shall apply to the Agency.

Enforceability of rights and transfer of liabilities

7.—(1) Any right that was, immediately before 1st April 2004, enforceable by or against Cumbria and Lancashire Strategic Health Authority in respect of the 1997 and the 1999 Directions is transferred to the Agency and therefore shall, on or after that date, be enforceable by or against the Agency.

(2) All liabilities of Cumbria and Lancashire Strategic Health Authority relating to the exercise of those functions it was directed to exercise under the 1997 and the 1999 Directions shall on 1st April 2004 be transferred to the Agency and are therefore enforceable against it.

(3) Any right that was, immediately before 1st April 2004, enforceable by or against Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Hospitals National Health Service Trust(9) in respect of the 1997 Agreement shall on 1st April 2004 be transferred to the Agency and be enforceable by or against the Agency.

(4) All liabilities of Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Hospitals National Health Service Trust in respect of the 1997 Agreement, shall on 1st April 2004 be transferred to the Agency and are therefore enforceable against it.

Transfer of officers

8.—(1) This paragraph applies in relation to an officer of Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Hospitals National Health Service Trust who on 31st March 2004 is wholly or mainly engaged in the performance of the functions specified in the 1997 Agreement and who was notified in writing on 9th January 2004 that he was to be transferred to the Agency.

(2) Any officer to whom paragraph (1) applies shall, on 1st April 2004, be transferred to the employment of the Agency.

(3) The contract of employment of an officer transferred under paragraph (2)—

(a)is not terminated by the transfer; and

(b)has effect from the time of the transfer as if originally made between the officer and the Agency.

(4) Without prejudice to paragraph (3)—

(a)all the rights, powers, duties and liabilities of the body from which an officer is transferred, under or in connection with its contract of employment with an officer transferred under paragraph (2), shall by virtue of this paragraph be transferred to the Agency; and

(b)anything done before the date of the transfer by or in relation to the body from which that officer is so transferred, in respect of the officer or his contract of employment, shall be deemed to have been done by or in relation to the Agency.

(5) Paragraphs (2) to (4) do not transfer an officer’s contract of employment, or the rights, powers, duties and liabilities under or in connection with it, if that officer objects to the transfer to the Agency and informs the body from which he would be transferred of that objection by 31st March 2004.

(6) Where an officer objects as mentioned in paragraph (5), his contract of employment with the body from which he would be transferred shall be terminated immediately before the date on which the transfer would occur, but he shall not be treated, for any purpose, as having been dismissed from that body.

(7) This article is without prejudice to any right of an officer to terminate his contract of employment if a substantial change is made to his detriment in his working conditions; but no such right shall arise by reason only that, under this article, the identity of his employer changes unless the officer shows that, in all the circumstances, the change is a significant change and is to his detriment.

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order provides for the establishment and constitution of a Special Health Authority, to be known as the NHS Pensions Agency (Asiantaeth Pensiynau'r GIG) (“the Agency”), to exercise functions, in England and Wales, in connection with the NHS Pension Scheme and, in England, in connection with the making of grants, and payment of fees and allowances under section 63 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968 and such other functions as, in relation to England, the Secretary of State and, in relation to Wales, the National Assembly for Wales may direct it to perform.

Article 2 of the Order establishes the Agency, the functions of which are described in article 3 and are to be specified more particularly in directions given by the Secretary of State, in relation to England, and the National Assembly for Wales, in relation to Wales. Provision is also made for the constitution of the Agency (article 4), for the remuneration of its members (article 5), for the admission of the public to meetings (article 6), for the transfer and enforceability of rights and liabilities (article 7) and the transfer of officers (article 8).