Be it enacted by the King’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-
PART I. CENTRAL ADMINISTRATION.
1.-(1) It shall be the duty of the Minister of Health (hereafter in this Act referred to as “the Minister”) to promote the establishment in England and Wales of a comprehensive health service designed to secure improvement in the physical and mental health of the people of England and Wales and the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of illness, and for that purpose to provide or secure the effective provision of services in accordance with the following provisions of this Act.
(2) The services so provided shall be free of charge, except where any provision of this Act expressly provides for the making and recovery of charges.
- (1) There shall be constituted in accordance with the First Schedule to this Act a council, to be called the Central Health Services Council and hereafter in this Act referred to as ”the Central Council”, and it shall be the duty of the Central Council to advise the Minister upon such general matters relating to the services provided under this Act, or any services provided by local health authorities in their capacity as such authorities, as the Council think fit and upon any questions referred to them by him relating to those services.
(2) The Minister may, after consultation with the Central Council, by order vary the constitution of that Council.
(3) The Minister may, after consultation with the Central Council, by order constitute standing advisory committees for the purpose of advising him and the Central Council on such of the services aforesaid as may be specified in the order, and any committee constituted under this subsection shall consist partly of members of the Central Council appointed by the Minister after consultation with that Council as being persons of experience in those services and partly of persons, whether members of the Central Council or not, appointed by the Minister after consultation with such representative organisations as the Minister may recognise for the purpose.
(4) It shall be the duty of a standing advisory committee constituted under this section to advise the Minister and the Central Council upon such matters relating to the services with which the committee are concerned as they think fit and upon any questions referred to them by the Minister or Central Council relating to those services, and, if the committee advise the Minister upon any matter, they shall inform the Central Council, who may express their views thereon to the Minister.
(5) The Central Council shall make an annual report to the Minister on their proceedings and on the proceedings of any standing advisory committee constituted under this section, and the Minister shall lay that report before Parliament with such comments (if any) as he thinks fit:
Provided that, if the Minister, after consultation with the Central Council, is satisfied that it would be contrary to the public interest to lay any such report, or a part of any such report, before Parliament, he may refrain from laying that report or part.
(6) The supplementary provisions contained in the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect in relation to the Central Council and any standing advisory committee constituted under this section.