Article 48 Acquisition and disposal of land

The Ministry may acquire by agreement or compulsorily in accordance with the following provisions of this Article any land which in its opinion is required for the purposes of F1health or social care, and any land held by it for those purposes may, if in the opinion of the Ministry it is no longer required for those purposes, be disposed of by it or be appropriated by it for other purposes of the Ministry.

Where the Department proposes to dispose of any land and is of the opinion that it is necessary, in order to facilitate that disposal, to acquire land adjoining that land, then, notwithstanding that the acquisition of that adjoining land is not required for the purposes of health or social care, the Department may acquire by agreement that adjoining land.

Where the Ministry in exercise of the power conferred by paragraph (1) desires to acquire any land otherwise than by agreement, the Ministry may make an order (in this Article referred to as a “vesting order”) vesting the land in the Ministry.

Schedule 6 to the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972 1972 c.9 shall, subject to the modifications thereof specified in Schedule 7 to this Order, apply for the purposes of the acquisition of land by means of a vesting order made under this Article in the same manner as it applies to the acquisition of land by means of a vesting order under that Act.

The power to make a vesting order in respect of land—

shall not, where representations objecting to the proposal for making the order have been duly made by the owner of the land and have not been withdrawn, be exercised in relation to that land unless the proposal for making the order has been approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament.

Nothing in this Article shall authorise the Ministry to acquire, without the consent of the Ministry of FinanceF3, any land on or in which there is, to the knowledge of the Ministry, any historic monument or archaeological object.

In paragraph (5), “historic monument” and “archaeological object” have the same meanings as inF4 the Historic Monuments and Archaeological Objects (Northern Ireland) Order 1995.