Explanatory note

These Regulations make amendments to regulations 11A, 14 and 16 of, and Schedule 4 to, the National Health Service Commissioning Board and Clinical Commissioning Groups (Responsibilities and Standing Rules) Regulations 2012 (S.I. 2012/2996) (“the principal Regulations”) which require the National Health Service Commissioning Board (“the Board”) to make arrangements for the provision, as part of the health service, of specified services or facilities to specified people or groups of people, and which impose a duty to provide after-care services under section 117(2) of the Mental Health Act 1983 (“the 1983 Act”) on a clinical commissioning group (“CCG”) other than the one which would be under that duty by virtue of that section.

Regulation 2 omits paragraph (2)(a) of regulation 14 of the principal Regulations. This means that the duty on a CCG (“CCG A”) to provide a person with after-care services under section 117(2) of the 1983 Act will no longer be imposed on another CCG (“CCG B”) in cases where CCG B has responsibility for that person by virtue of section 3(1A) of the National Health Service Act 2006. Regulation 5 makes transitional provisions which ensure that where CCG B has responsibility for providing a person with after-care services under regulation 14(1) and (2)(a) of the principal Regulations immediately before these Regulations come into force, responsibility continues to lie with CCG B until that person no longer requires after-care services or that person is detained under the provisions referred to in section 117(1) of the 1983 Act.

Regulation 3 amends regulation 16 of the principal Regulations to provide that where the Board or a CCG enters into a commissioning contract with a health service provider, that contract must contain terms and conditions which ensure that the provider complies with the duties set out in regulation 20 of the Health and Social Care Act (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 (which relate to candour), as modified by this regulation for the purposes of the principal Regulations, irrespective of whether other than by virtue of this regulation the provider would have to comply with the duties set out in regulation 20 of those Regulations.

Regulation 4(1) amends regulation 11A of the principal Regulations to make transitional and saving provision in relation to the amendment made in regulation 4(2)(d) to provide that while the Board retains responsibility after 1st April 2016 for on-going contracts for specialist morbid obesity services, its statutory duty to commission the services as they are provided for in any such contract continues.

Regulation 4 also amends Schedule 4 to the principal Regulations (services for rare and very rare conditions) to give effect to revised commissioning responsibilities for the Board pursuant to regulations 7, 10 and 11 of the principal Regulations.

These amendments follow advice received, and consultation with the Board, pursuant to the statutory procedures set out in section 3B(4) of the National Health Service Act 2006.

No impact assessment has been carried out in respect of these Regulations as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen.