§ Bill returned from the Commons earlier this day agreed to with amendments.
§ 7.17 p.m.
§ Lord TrefgarneMy Lords, I beg to move that the Commons Amendments be now considered.
§ Moved, That the Commons Amendments be now considered. —(Lord Trefgarne.)
Lord WinstanleyMy Lords, I should like to speak briefly on the Question that the Commons Amendments be now considered. It seems to me that it would have been quite impossible for your Lordships to have agreed that Question had it not been for the indefatigable work, far beyond the call of duty, which has been done far into the night, and indeed, to the best of my knowledge, right through the night, by those ladies and gentlemen who work in the Public Bill Office. They have worked all night to get this vast array of amendments ready for us. Sometimes we take a little too much for granted the work which is done for us in your Lordships' House, and it is right to place on record our gratitude to those people before we agree to this Question, to which we could not have agreed had it not been for the work which has been done on our behalf.
§ Lord TrefgarneMy Lords, I wish to be wholly associated with the words of the noble Lord.
§ Baroness DavidMy Lords, so do we, because I think that this is a monstrous task to have to ask anyone to undertake.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.
§ COMMONS AMENDMENT
§ 1 Clause 1, page 2, line 29, at end, insert "or Part II of Schedule 8 to the Health and Social Services and Social Security Adjudications Act 1983".
§ Lord TrefgarneMy Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 1. In order to afford your Lordships the maximum convenience in this matter, I propose to speak once only, on the first amendment, and then, if your Lordships agree, to move the remainder en bloc. It is now three months since this Bill passed from your Lordships' House to another place. During that time Members of the other place have devoted much time and energy to the discussion of your Lordships' proposals and, as is evident from the list before you, quite a number of amendments have been proposed.
Although with 133 amendments, the list may at first sight appear formidable, I can assure your Lordships that the majority of these are either necessary technical changes, or introduce minor refinements which I believe improve what we had already agreed was a welcome and useful Bill, and I should therefore be surprised if your Lordships found these changes objectionable.
648 Of the more significant changes, a number were introduced in response to suggestions put forward by your Lordships, but which time did not permit us to include before the Bill passed to another place. Perhaps the most important changes which have been made to the Bill since it left this House relate to legislation in the child care field. Your Lordships will remember our lengthy debate on the question of parental rights resolutions and access to children in care. I am pleased to say that the Government were able to bring forward amendments that we believe made significant improvements in both these areas.
I turn now to Clause 6 concerning the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work. This was amended in Committee in another place to remove the requirement of central and local government to provide mandatory grants for the training of social workers. Your Lordships will recall that this requirement was inserted in the Bill in this House on an amendment moved by my noble friend Lady Faithfull but against the Government's advice. In Committee in another place my honourable friend the Minister for Health reiterated the arguments that I put to your Lordships. I shall therefore not detain your Lordships by repeating all the points previously made.
My noble friend Lady Faithfull argued that residential care was the area in which more training was most needed. My honourable friend the Minister was able to describe in another place a number of substantial developments, both current and potential, which, with Government assistance, are directed at more and better training for people working in residential care. My noble friend has discussed these with my colleague, another Parliamentary Secretary, at the DHSS, and I understand that she has acknowledged that these represent a significant contribution specifically directed at residential care.
Equally, we acknowledge my noble friend's point that training for the Certificate of Qualification in Social Work for which the proposed mandatory grants were intended is important for a proportion of people occupying key positions in the running of residential care establishments. We also acknowledge that an important group among those seeking CQSW training generally are the more mature post-graduate students. I am therefore glad to be able to tell your Lordships that the number of grants to be offered this year by the DHSS for such people shows a significant increase. Last year, some 716 new grants were taken up. This year, the number of grants that we shall offer shows an increase on this figure of more than 10 per cent. Ideally, we should like to be able to do far more to promote the training of those who work with vulnerable people; but I believe that in our current financial circumstances, the measures I have described represent a balanced package, preferable to an indiscriminate requirement to provide mandatory grants.
Your Lordships will no doubt remember that when we considered Clause 11 in Committee in December last year the noble Baroness, Lady Masham, successfully moved an amendment to remove the reference to "means" in the first subsection of the clause. I understand that she felt that the requirement on local authorities to have regard to the means of all those 649 charged for day and domiciliary services was a punitive provision that would prove unacceptable to those using such services. On that occasion, I resisted the amendment which I felt undermined the Government's intention to introduce consistency for the various powers under which local authorities may make charges and to protect those on low incomes. I still believe that the clause as it passed from your Lordships' House was unsatisfactory but the Government have accepted the force of the noble Lady's argument. We think that in Amendments Nos. 13 to 15, 109 to 111 and 122, incorporated in another place, we have provided a much improved clause which meets both the concern of the noble Lady and achieves what the Government want. It does not require a means test for all those who pay charges. I hope that your Lordships will agree that the Government have provided a statutory formula for charging by local authorities for their day and domiciliary services which meets the concern expressed in this House last December about fairness. It was welcomed by Members on both sides in the other place when debated in Committee there.
Your Lordships will wish to know that the Government have reluctantly agreed that Clause 8 and the related Schedule 4 which conferred employing authority status on family practitioner committees should for the most part be left out of the Bill because of the controversial nature of the proposals. This accounts for Amendments Nos. 9 and 10, 58 to 64, 68 to 70, 74 and 75, 96, 97, 102, 103, 105 to 107, 119 to 121, 126 to 128 and 133.
Finally, I can perhaps mention that Amendments Nos. 79, 81, 84, 86 and 91 restore the position for nominating members of tribunals and ensure that the existing rights of nomination enjoyed by the TUC and the CBI are maintained. This was a matter of particular concern to noble Lords opposite and their right honourable and honourable friends in another place.
Those parts of the Bill to which I have not yet referred remain substantially unchanged. They include the provisions to promote community care in children's regional planning, the abolition of the teaching designation for health authorities, the fees for notification of infectious diseases and the abolition of a number of advisory bodies that have outlived their usefulness. These are all provisions that were broadly welcomed by your Lordships, who will be pleased to note that they are for the most part in the same form as when they passed for consideration in another place. I have not covered all the amendments on the list. I have already stated that the majority are of a minor or technical nature. I shall of course be happy to try and answer any detailed points that your Lordships may wish to raise.
I conclude by thanking noble Lords for their valiant efforts in framing the main structure of the Bill when it went through your Lordships' House originally. I thank noble Lords again for facilitating its rapid progress to the statute book tonight.
§ Moved, That this House doth agree with the Commons in the said amendment.—(Lord Trefgarne.)
650§ 7.26 p.m.
§ Baroness JegerMy Lords, I should like to follow the example of the Minister and speak not only to Amendment No. 1 but also to the other 132 amendments before us. This is no way for important legislation to be dealt with. A Bill that affects so many thousands of our people should have received more thought and more concern. In fact, I would have preferred that the Bill had been allowed to fall, so that whichever Government come into power next month could have begun again and looked at matters in detail.
This is an important Bill. We have stated at earlier stages that it covers too many disparate subjects and that it is too much of a portmanteau Bill. I remind your Lordships that it covers the question of access to children in care, the problem of secure accommodation for children in Scotland, the registration of residential and nursing homes, the constitution of family practitioner committees, the amendment of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978, the dental practitioners whose registration is suspended, charges for local authority services, social security adjudications and calculation of assets. All these are matters that were not properly resolved and that should have received further consideration.
I appreciate the difficulties of the situation. However, the fact that one received only today a copy of the amendments from the Commons in a rather variable presentation, some of it illegible, makes it difficult for us to deal with the various amendments. I should like to say with emphasis that I have every sympathy with the staff who have been hard pressed and who have been put in an impossible position in presenting 133 amendments that were only passed by the Commons last night. I do not blame the calligraphy of any of the staff or the mischievous misrepresentations of the photocopying machinery that appear from page to page. But this is a serious matter. There might be a risk of error when these things are put into legislation arising out of problems of typography and calligraphy. This is not the way in which Parliament should behave in dealing with laws that will affect so many of our people in so many ways.
I am not going to take a Trappist vow, but I am sure that the noble Minister will be glad to hear that I do not intend to speak again about the Bill. I believe that the House has been treated with such disrespect and the whole of this legislation so downgraded that it would be impossible and useless for us to try and make any further improvements tonight. It is with deep regret that I have to say these things. I appreciate the difficulties. Just because there has to be a cut and run election, we have the Bill thrust upon us in this incomplete and ill-thought-out way. It is especially discourteous to this House because the Bill started in this House. We spent a great deal of time, as the noble Lord, Lord Trefgarne, will painfully remember, on trying to get the Bill right.
We have received 133 amendments back from another place and we are supposed just to roll it all up tonight. If the Bill is important it would have been better for it to have been left on one side for a new beginning. But because the Government prefer to rush it out of the way to suit their electoral ambitions, I can 651 only hope that we will be sitting on other sides of this noble House after 9th June and then we will be able to put right some of the things which are wrong in this Bill.
Lord WinstanleyMy Lords, I should like to join with the noble Baroness, Lady Jeger, in thanking the noble Lord, Lord Trefgarne, for dealing with this very complicated list of amendments so very expeditiously if, indeed, the noble Baroness actually did thank the noble Lord—I think she did so. However, if the noble Baroness did not do so, I certainly do.
I am bound to say that these are very complicated amendments. I could not honestly say that I understand them fully or even that I have made a very serious attempt as yet to understand them all fully. But I say straightaway that I have personally no wish at this stage to impede the further progress of this Bill. It does a number of things which are valuable and which perhaps ought to be done. Let me say in passing that I am a little sorry that the amendment of the noble Baroness, Lady Faith full, has gone, although I am glad to hear that the Government have gone some way towards meeting the points which the noble Baroness raised. I am also a little anxious about the disappearance of various matters to do with the new structure for the family practitioner committees. I think in part that there may well be difficulties which may arise later as a result of that.
But having said all that, I am bound to say that I must follow the example of the noble Lord and deal with all the amendments briefly. The noble Lord, Lord Trefgarne, will recollect that when we were dealing with another matter for which he was responsible only a few minutes ago—the Dentists Bill—we reminded your Lordships' House that we get a Dentists Bill every 30 years. Few of us will still be here when the next Dentists Bill arrives. I would venture to suggest that there are one or two matters in this particular Bill which may have to be dealt with much sooner than in 30 years, and while I would not impede the progress of this Bill and do not wish to oppose any of these particular amendments, it is only right to say that there are those of us in your Lordships' House who may feel that we shall want to use what devices are open to us on another occasion perhaps to make further amendments by means of amending legislation of one kind or another should the need prove to be there when we have given the whole matter the degree of study which it deserves. In the meantime, I thank the noble Lord for dealing with the whole matter as expeditiously as he has done and I shall try to do likewise myself.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.
§ COMMONS AMENDMENTS
§ 2 Page 2, line 40, after '1957' insert 'towards expenditure incurred or to be incurred by them'.
§ 3 Clause 2, page 6, line 41, leave out '10 of the Mental Health Act 1959' and insert '116 of the Mental Health Act 1983'.
§ 4 After Clause 2, insert the following new clause:
§ "Financial assistance to voluntary organisations in Scotland.
§ .—A. Section 64 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968 (financial assistance to voluntary organisations) shall cease to have effect with regard to Scotland and the following section shall be inserted in the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 after section 16A—
652§ "Financial assistance by the Secretary of State to voluntary organisations.
§ 16B.—(1) The Secretary of State may, upon such terms and subject to such conditions as he may, with the approval of the Treasury, determine, give to a voluntary organisation to which this section applies assistance by way of grant or loan, or partly in the one way and partly in the other.
§ (2) This section applies to a voluntary organisation whose activites consist in or include the provision of a service similar to a relevant service, the promotion or publicising of a relevant service or a similar one or the giving of advice with respect to the manner in which a relevant service or a similar one can best be provided.
§ (3) In this section, 'relevant service' means a service which must or may, by virtue of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978, be provided or the provision of which must or may, by virtue of that Act, be secured by the Secretary of State, or a service for the provision of which a Health Board is, by virtue of that Act, under a duty to make arrangements.".
§ 5 After Clause 4, insert the following new clause:—
§
Access to children in care—England and Wales.
B—The enactments specified in Schedule (Access to children in care) to this Act shall have effect subject to the amendments there specified, being amendments concerning access to children in the care of local authorities and voluntary organisations.
§ 6 After Clause 4, insert the following new clause:—
§
Access to children in care—Scotland.
C—(1) In section 16 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 (assumption of parental rights and powers), in subsection (5)—
(2) The following sections shall be inserted in the said Act of 1968 after section 17 of that Act—
§ Termination of access to child subject to resolution under section 16.
§ 17A.—(1) A local authority or voluntary organization may not terminate arrangements for access to a child who is the subject of a resolution under section 16 of this Act by his parent or guardian or refuse to make such arrangements unless they have first given the parent or guardian notice of termination or refusal in a form prescribed by order made by the Secretary of State.
§ (2) A notice under this section shall contain a statement that the parent or guardian has a right to apply to the sherriff for an order under section I 7B of this Act.
§ (3) A notice terminating access shall state that access will be terminated as from the date of service of the notice.
§ (4) A local authority or voluntary organisation are not to be taken to terminate arrangements for access for the purposes of this section in a case where they propose to substitute new arrangements for access for existing arrangements.
§ (5) A local authority or voluntary organisation are not to be taken to refuse to make arrangements for access for the purposes of this section in a case where they postpone access for such reasonable period as appears to them to be necessary to enable them to consider what arrangements for access (if any) are to be made.
§ (6) A notice under this section may be served on a parent or guardian either by delivering it to him or by leaving it at his proper address or by sending it by post.
§ (7) For the purposes of this section, and of section 7 of the Interpretation Act 1978 in its application to this section, the proper address of a person shall he his last known address.
§ Access Orders.
§ 17B.—(1) A parent or guardian on whom a notice under section 17A of this Act is served may apply by way of summary application to the sheriff (in the case of a local authority, the sheriff having jurisdiction in their area) for an order under this section (hereinafter referred to as an 'access order').
653§ (2) An access order shall be an order requiring the authority or organisation to allow the child's parent or guardian access to the child subject to such conditions as the order may specify with regard to commencement, frequency, duration or place of access or to any other matter for which it appears to the sheriff that provision ought to be made in connection with the requirement to allow access.
§ (3) Where an access order has been made—
- (a) the parent or guardian named in the order; or
- (b) the local authority or voluntary organisation may apply by way of summary application to the sheriff for the variation or discharge of the order.
§ Emergency order.
§ 17C.—(1) The sheriff may make an order under this subsection where he is satisfied that continued access to a child by his parent or guardian in accordance with the terms of an access order will put the child's welfare seriously at risk.
§ (2) Subject to subsection (3) below, an order under subsection (1) of this section shall be an order suspending the operation of the access order for 7 days beginning with the date of the order under subsection (1) of this section, or for such shorter period beginning with that date as may be specified in that order.
§ (3) If during the period for which the operation of the access order is suspended the local authority or voluntary organisation make an application for its variation or discharge to the sheriff, its operation shall be suspended until the date on which the application to vary or discharge it is determined or abandoned.
§ Safeguarding of interest of child.
§ 17D.—A court to which an application for an access order or any other application under section 17B or 17C of this Act or any appeal relating thereto is made shall regard the welfare of the child as the first and paramount consideration in determining the matter.
§ Code of practice.
§ 17E.—(1) The Secretary of State shall prepare, and from time to time revise, a code of practice with regard to access to children who are in care or who are subject to a supervision requirement under section 44 of this Act.
§ (2) Before preparing the code or making any alteration in it the Secretary of State shall consult such bodies as appear to him to be concerned.
§ (3) The Secretary of State shall lay copies of the code and of any alteration in the code before Parliament; and if either House of Parliament passes a resolution requiring the code or any alteration in it to be withdrawn the Secretary of State shall withdraw the code or alteration and, where he withdraws the code, shall prepare a code in substitution for the one which is withdrawn.
§ (4) No resolution shall be passed by either House of Parliament under subsection (3) above in respect of a code or alteration after the expiration of the period of forty days beginning with the day on which a copy of the code or alteration was laid before that House; but for the purposes of this subsection no account shall be taken of any time during which Parliament is dissolved or prorogued or during which both Houses are adjourned for more than four days.
§ (5) The Secretary of State shall publish the code as for the time being in force.".
§ (3) In section 18A of the Act (safeguarding of interests of child), in subsection (1), after the words "16A(3)" there shall be inserted the words ", 17B. 17C".
§ 7 After Clause 4, insert the following new Clause—
§ Secure accommodation for children in Scotland
§
D.—(1) In section 32 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 (requisite conditions for compulsory measures of care for children), in subsection (2) there shall be inserted at the end—
(i) he is in the care of a local authority and his behaviour is such that special measures are needed for his adequate care and control.".
§ (2) In section 59A of the said Act of 1968 (grants in respect of secure accommodation for children), subsection (3) shall be left out.
§
(3) In section 60 of that Act (control of residential establishments), in subsection (1)—
(a) after paragraph (b) there shall he inserted the following paragraph—
(bb) for the granting of approval by the Secretary of State for the provision and use of accommodation in residential establishments as secure accommodation:
(b) after paragraph (e) there shall be inserted the following paragraph—
(ee) for prescribing the minimum age below which a child's liberty shall not be restricted in secure accommodation except with the Secretary of State's consent;
(c) after paragraph (f), after the words "classes of establishments" there shall be inserted the words ", different classes of accommodation in residential and other establishments".
§ (4) After section 58 of that Act there shall be inserted the following sections—
§ "Residence in secure accommodation.
§ 58A.—(1) A child who is made subject to a supervision requirement under this Act may not be placed or kept in secure accommodation, except under the provisions of this Act.
§ (2) In this Act, "secure accommodation" means accommodation provided in a residential establishment in accordance with regulations made under section 60(1) of this Act for the purpose of restricting the liberty of children.
§ (3) Where a children's hearing decide, in accordance with section 44 of this Act, that a child is in need of compulsory measures of care, and they are satisfied that either—
§ (a) he has a history of absconding, and—
- (i) he is likely to abscond unless he is kept in secure accommodation; and
- (ii) if he absconds, it is likely that his physical, mental or moral welfare will be at risk; or
§ (b) he is likely to injure himself or other persons unless he is kept in secure accommodation.
§ they may make it a condition of a supervision requirement under subsection (1)(b) of the said section 44 that the child shall be liable to be placed and kept in secure accommodation in the named residential establishment at such times as the person in charge of that establishment, with the agreement of the director of social work of the local authority required to give effect to the supervision requirement, considers it necessary that he do so.
§ (4) The Secretary of State shall have power by regulation to make provision with respect to the placing in secure accommodation of any child—
- (a) who is subject to a supervision requirement imposed under section 44 of this Act but not subject to a condition imposed under subsection (3) of this section; or
- (b) who is not subject to such a supervision requirement but who is being cared for by a local authority or voluntary organisation in pursuance of such enactments as may be specified in the regulations,
§ Time limits on keeping without reference to children's hearing.
§ 58B.—(1) The Secretary of State shall by regulation prescribe—
- (a) the maximum period during which a child may be kept under this Act in secure accommodation without the authority of a children's hearing or of the sheriff;
- (b) the period within which the case of a child placed under this Act in secure accommodation shall be referred to the reporter and different periods may be prescribed in respect of different cases or classes of case.
§ (2) The Secretary of State shall by regulations make provision to enable a child who has been placed in secure accommodation under section 58(A)(4) of this Act or his parent to require that the child's case be brought before a children's hearing within a shorter period than would otherwise apply under regulations made under subsection (1)(a) of this section.
§ (3) Where, in any case, a children's hearing direct the reporter to make application to the sheriff for a finding under section 42(2)(c) of this Act (finding that grounds for referral are established), they shall have power, if they are satisfied with regard to the criteria specified in paragraph (a) or (b) of section 58A(3) of this Act, to authorise the detention or, as the case may be, further detention of the child in secure accommodation in a named residential establishment, pending the determination of the case in accordance with section 42(5) or (6) of this Act.
§ Review of secure accommodation & condition.
§ 58C.—(1) A condition imposed under section 58A(3) of this Act, requiring a child to reside in secure accommodation, shall he subject to review by a children's hearing at such time as the local authority recommends and otherwise at such times and in accordance with such provisions as the Secretary of State shall by regulations prescribe.
§ (2) A condition to which this section applies shall he reviewed when the supervision requirement is being reviewed, and may be reviewed separately from that review.
§ (3) A condition to which this section applies shall cease to have effect at the expiry of the period of three months after it was made, unless it has been reviewed and the condition has been ordered to continue.
§ (4) A condition which is continued on review shall cease to have effect at the expiry of the period of—
- (a) nine months after it is first reviewed;
- (b) twelve months after the second or any subsequent review,
§ (5) Sections 44 and 48(5) of this Act shall apply to the review of conditions made under section 58A(3) of this Act as they apply to the review of supervision requirements.
§ (6) The Secretary of State may from time to time make regulations to vary the periods specified in this section.
§ Sheriff's power to direct condition to cease to have effect.
§ 58D. Where under section 49(5) of this Act (appeal against decision of children's hearing) the sheriff is satisfied in a case in which there is in force a condition under section 58A(3) of this Act that the decision of the children's hearing is not justified in all the circumstances of the case he shall direct that the condition shall cease to have effect.
§ Warrants to detain in secure sccommodation.
§ 58E.—(1) Where the sheriff or a children's hearing issues a warrant under any of sections 37, 40 and 42 of this Act (detention in a place of safety), he or they may, if satisfied with regard to the criteria specified in paragraph (a) or (b) of section 58A(3) of this Act, authorise the detention or, as the case may be, further detention of the child in secure accommodation in a named residential establishment.
§ (2) For the purposes of this section, the Secretary of State may make regulations amending, varying or disapplying any of the criteria specified in the said paragraphs (a) and (b) of section 58A(3) of this Act except in relation to a warrant under section 37 of this Act.
§ Procedures for placing in secure accommodation.
§ 58F.—(l) The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision for the procedures to be applied in the placing of children in secure accommodation, and 656 without prejudice to the foregoing generality may make provision for the referral of cases to a children's hearing for review.
§ (2) Regulations under this section may specify the duties of the reporter in relation to the placing of children in secure accommodation.
§ (3) Regulations under this section may make provision for the parent of a child being informed of the placing of the child in secure accommodation.
§ Transitional provisions.
§ 58G. Regulation made under sections 58A to 58F of this Act mar include such transitional provisions as the Secretary of State may consider necessary, including provisions varying the application of any provision in those sections for a transitional period, either generally, or in relation to specified classes of cases.
§ 8 Clause 6, page 11 line 1, leave out subsection (8).
§ 9 Clause 8, page 12, line 22, leave out subsection (1).
§ 10 Page 13, line 36, leave out subsections (3) and (4).
§ 11 After Clause 10, insert the following new clause:—
§ Dental practitioners whose registration is suspended—England and Wales.
§
E—In the National Health Service Act 1977—
(a) the following subsections shall be added at the end of section 35 (arrangements for general dental services)—
the suspension shall not terminate any arrangements made with him for the provision of general dental services, but he shall not provide such services in person during the suspension.(b) the following sub-paragraph shall be inserted after paragraph 10(2) of' Schedule 5—
(2A) Where the registration of a dental practitioner in the dentists register is suspended—
the suspension shall not terminate any contract of employment made between him and an authority but a person whose registration is suspended under that Part of that Act shall not perform any duties under a contract made between him and an authority which involve the practice of dentistry within the meaning of section 33(1) of the Dentists Act 1957.
§ 12 After Clause 10, insert the following new clause:—
§ "Dental practitioners whose registration is suspended—Scotland
§
F—In the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978—
(a) the following subsections shall be added at the end of section 25 (arrangements for general dental services)—
657
and
the suspension shall not terminate any arrangements made with him for the provision of general dental services, but he shall not provirde such services in person during the suspension.(b) the following sub-paragraph shall be inserted after paragraph 6 of Schedule 1—
(6A) Notwithstanding paragraph 7 of this Schedule, where the registration of a dental practitioner in the dentists register suspended—
the suspension shall not terminate any contract of employment made between him and a Health Board but a person whose registration is suspended under that Part of that Act shall not perform any duties under a contract made between him and a Health Board which involve the practice of dentistry within the meaning of section 33(1) of the Dentists Act 1957.
§ 13 Leave out Clause 11.
§ 14 After Clause 11, insert the following new Clause:
§ "Charges for local authority services in England and Wales.
§ G.—(1) Subject to subsection (3) below, an authority providing a service to which this section applies may recover such charge (if any) for it as they consider reasonable.
§ (2) This section applies to service provided under the following enactments—
- (a) section 29 of the National Assistance Act 1948 (welfare arrangements for blind, deaf, dumb and crippled persons etc.);
- (b) section 45(1) of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968 (welfare of old people);
- (c) Schedule 8 to the National Health Service Act 1977 (care of mothers and young children, prevention of illness and care and after-care and home help and laundry facilities);
- (d) section 8 of the Residential Homes Act 1980 (meals and recreation for old people); and
- (e) paragraph I of Part 11 of Schedule 8 to this Act.
§ (3) If a person—
- (a) avails himself of a service to which this section applies; and
- (b) satisfies the authority providing the service that his means are insufficient for it to be reasonably practicable for him to pay for the service the amount which he would otherwise be obliged to pay for it,
§ (4) Any charge under this section may, without prejudice to any other method of recovery, be recovered summarily as a civil debt".
§ 15 After Clause 11, insert the following new Clause—
§ "Charges for local authority services in Scotland.
§ H. In section 87 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 (charges for services and accommodation) there shall be substituted for subsection (1) the following subsections:—
- '(1) Subject to sections 78 and 78A of this Act (contributions in respect of maintainable children) and to the following provisions of this section, a local authority providing a service under this Act may recover such charge (if any) for it as they consider reasonable.
- (1A) If a person—
- (a) avails himself of a service provided under this Act; and
- (b) satisfies the authority providing the service that his means are insufficient for it to be reasonably practicable for him to pay for the service the amount which he would otherwise be obliged to pay for it,
§
16 Clause 12, page 16, line 27, leave out subsection (6) and insert—
'(6) In section 78 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 (duty to make contributions in respect of children in care)—
658
(2A) No contributions shall be payable under subsection (1)(a) of this section by a contributor during a period when he is in receipt of—
(7) After section 78 of the said Act of 1968 there shall be inserted the following section—
| "Recovery of contributions. | 78A.—(1) Section 87 of this Act (charges for services and accommodation) shall not apply to the provision of services (including accommodation) under this Act in respect of maintainable children, and the provisions of this section shall apply thereto. |
| (2) A local authority providing such services may recover from a contributor a contribution (if any) of such amount as is reasonable and, subject to that, may recover— | |
| (a) a standard contribution determined by them in respect of maintainable children who are in their care or under their supervision; or | |
| (b) such other contribution as they consider reasonable in the circumstances.".'. |
§ 17 Clause 15, page 18, line 28, leave out 'an' and insert 'a beneficial'.
§ 18 line 29, leave out from first 'the' to 'on' in line 30 and insert 'local authority may create a charge in their favour'.
§ 19 line 32, leave out 'subsection (1) above' and insert 'this section'.
§ 20 line 34, at end insert—
- '(2A) Any interest in the proceeds of sale of land held upon trust for sale is to be treated, subject to subsection (4) below, as an interest in land for the purposes of this section.
- (2B) Subject to subsection (2C) below, a charge under this section shall be in respect of any amount assessed as due to be paid which is outstanding from time to time.
- (2C) The charge on the interest of a joint tenant in the proceeds of sale of land held upon trust for sale shall be in respect of an amount not exceeding the value of the interest that he would enjoy in those proceeds if the joint tenancy were severed, but the creation of such a charge shall not sever the joint tenancy.
- (2D) On the death of a joint tenant in the proceeds of sale of land held upon trust for sale whose interest in the proceeds is subject to a charge under this section—
- (a) if there are surviving joint tenants, their interests in the proceeds; and
- (b) if the land vests in one person, or one person is entitled to have it vested in him, his interest in it, shall become subject to a charge for an amount not exceeding the amount of the charge to which the interest of the deceased joint tenant was subject by virtue of subsection (2C) above.
- (2E) A charge under this section shall be created by a declaration in writing made by the local authority'.
§ 21 line 35, leave out subsection (3).
§ 22 line 38, after 'charge', insert,' other than a charge on an interest in the proceeds of sale of land'.
§
23 Clause 21, page 22, line 3, leave out subsection (1) and insert—
'(1) There shall be defrayed out of money provided by Parliament—
§ 24 line 9, leave out 'section 1 above' and insert 'this Act'.
§ 25 Clause 26, page 23, line 38, after '(2)', insert 'Except where the contrary intention appears.'
§ 26Before Schedule 1, insert the following new Schedule:
§ Section (Access to Children in Care—England and Wales).
§ 'ACCESS TO CHILDREN IN CARE