Regulation 3 Appointment of members

(1)

The Secretary of State must exercise the function in regulation 2(1)(a) so as to secure that the chair is a person who is a member of the Commission at the time when the appointment as chair takes effect^f1.

(2)

The chair must exercise the function in regulation 2(1)(b) so as to secure that—

(a)

a majority of members are not members of the Commission;

(b)

so far as reasonably practicable, the persons appointed include persons with knowledge or experience relevant to the discharge, by the Committee, of functions under section 45A of the Health and Social Care Act 2008^f2 (functions to be exercised by Healthwatch England); and

(c)

arrangements for the selection and appointment of persons as members take into account—

(i)

the principle that the selection and appointment of members should be open and transparent; and

(ii)

the principles laid down in the Commissioner for Public Appointments’ Code of Practice for Ministerial Appointments to Public Bodies of 1st April 2012^f3.

(3)

In exercising the function in regulation 2(1)(b), the chair must have regard to the need to encourage diversity in the range of persons who may be appointed.

(4)

In exercising that function, the chair may, subject to the conditions specified in paragraph (5), appoint up to four members who are directors of Local Healthwatch organisations^f4.

(5)

The conditions are that—

(a)

those persons are not members of the Commission at the time of the appointment; and

(b)

in relation to each region of England, no more than one member is appointed from directors of Local Healthwatch organisations for the areas of English local authorities^f5 in that region.

(6)

For the purposes of paragraph (5)(b), the regions of England are listed in column (1) of the Table in Schedule 1 and comprise the areas specified in column (2) of the Table.

Annotations

Footnotes

f1: See paragraph 3 of Schedule 1 to the 2008 Act and S.I. 2008/2252, as amended by S.I. 2011/2547, as to the membership of the Commission.
f2: Section 45A was inserted into Part 1 of the 2008 Act by section 181(4) of the 2012 Act. Subsection (1) of section 45A provides that the functions set out in subsections (2) to (5) are functions of the Commission but that the Commission must arrange for the Healthwatch England committee to exercise the functions on its behalf.
f3: A copy of the Code of Practice of April 2012 is available to download from the Commissioner for Public Appointments’ website at http://publicappointmentscommissioner.independent.gov.uk.
f4: As to the meaning of “Local Healthwatch organisation”, see subsection (2A) of section 222 of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 (c.28) (“the 2007 Act”), which is to be inserted by section 183(2) of the 2012 Act on a date to be appointed under section 306 of the 2012 Act.
f5: See section 97(1) of the 2008 Act as to the definition of “English local authority”.