{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/national-health-service-service-committees-and-tribunal-amendment-regulations-1990/note",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/national-health-service-service-committees-and-tribunal-amendment-regulations-1990/note.json",
  "legislation": "uksi/1990/538",
  "legislation_title": "The National Health Service (Service Committees and Tribunal) Amendment Regulations 1990",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/national-health-service-service-committees-and-tribunal-amendment-regulations-1990",
  "path": "note",
  "kind": "note",
  "number": null,
  "heading": "Explanatory note",
  "text": "(This note is not part of the Regulations)\nThese Regulations further amend the National Health Service (Service Committees and Tribunal) Regulations 1974 (“the principal Regulations”), which provide for the investigation and determination by Family Practitioner Committees and their service committees of questions whether doctors, dentists, chemists and opticians providing services under the National Health Service have failed to comply with their terms of service, for the determination of representations to the National Health Service Tribunal, and for appeals from such determinations.\nIn regulation 3 of the principal Regulations amendments are made to the provisions governing the constitution of ophthalmic service committees, the appointment of deputies for service committee members and the discretion of deputy chairmen, and to limit to one year the terms of office of those appointed to service committees (regulation 3). Amendments are made in regulation 4 of the principal Regulations to extend to 13 weeks the time limit within which complaints may be made and to enable complaints to be made orally in certain circumstances (regulation 4). Regulation 5 of the principal Regulations is amended in relation to the circumstances in which complaints made outside the permitted time limits may nevertheless be investigated, and to extend to denture conciliation committees the same jurisdiction as service committees to determine whether late complaints may be entertained (regulation 5). Regulation 6 of the principal Regulations is amended so as to enable complaints to be made by minors aged 16 and 17 and, in particular to make further provision for the withdrawal of complaints and for proceedings to be discontinued following the death of the respondent to a complaint, and to require that the responsibility for investigating a complaint be transferred in certain circumstances to another Family Practitioner Committee (regulation 6). An amendment is made in regulation 7 of the principal Regulations to restrict those who may not represent parties before service committees to persons who are barristers or solicitors (regulation 7).\nA new regulation 10 is substituted in the principal Regulations which enables a Family Practitioner Committee to recover expenses, and amounts of remuneration not exceeding £500, from and to warn any doctor, dentist, chemist or optician whom they have found to be in breach of his terms of service, and makes further provision for the giving of notice of decisions to Members of Parliament, if requested by either party (regulation 8). New paragraphs are substituted in regulation 11 of the principal Regulations to provide for parties' rights of appeal against decisions of Family Practitioner Committees and for the Secretary of State’s powers when determining such appeals, and regulation 12 of the principal Regulations is amended to enable appeals to be withdrawn (regulations 9 and 10). Amendments are also made to the procedures under which the Secretary of State determines whether a withholding of remuneration should be imposed or certain dental work should be made subject to prior approval (regulations 11, 12 and 13).\nPart III of the principal Regulations (concerned with the determination of representations to the National Health Service Tribunal and of appeals from that Tribunal) is amended, in particular to require that a preliminary statement of the facts and grounds on which a complainant intends to rely is included in the initial representation to the Tribunal (regulation 14), to treat a representation as having been withdrawn if the complainant fails, without reasonable excuse, to appear at the Inquiry before the Tribunal (regulation 19) and to extend the time within which an appeal may be made to the Secretary of State from a decision of the Tribunal (regulation 22). Other amendments of a minor nature are made in Part III of the principal Regulations (by regulations 15 to 18, 20, 21 and 23).\nA new regulation 53 is substituted in the principal Regulations to amplify the powers of the Secretary of State to extend the time limits within which appeals may be brought or representations may be made under those Regulations (regulation 25).\nThe rules of procedure for service committees in Schedule 1 to the principal Regulations are amended, principally to enable further and better particulars of complaints to be requested, to require the investigation of a complaint to be suspended pending attempts by the parties to reach agreement under an informal conciliation procedure operated by the Family Practitioner Committee and to require the chairman of a service committee to identify, in advance of the hearing, the terms of service which a complaint has put in issue; and changes are also made to provisions governing the quorum of a service committee and a joint services committee (regulation 26).\nThese Regulations, which come into force on 2nd April 1990, make transitional provision in relation to their application to proceedings commenced under the principal Regulations before that date (regulation 27), and also insert definitions and make amendments in the principal Regulations which are either of a minor nature or are consequential upon the amendments mentioned above.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1990/538/note",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T15:24:47.280494+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}