National Assistance Act 1948

8 (1) Where any premises being part of a workhouse were immediately before the appointed day being used otherwise than for hospital purposes, but the workhouse as a whole was mainly being used for hospital purposes, the entirety of the workhouse shall be treated as a hospital for the purposes of the Act of 1946, and shall be transferred to and vest in the Minister of Health under that Act accordingly, and no apportionment of interests shall be made under paragraph (a) of subsection (5) of section six of that Act:

Provided that nothing in this sub-paragraph shall extend the operation of the provisions of section sixty-eight of that Act or regulations made thereunder as to the transfer of officers.

(2) Where a workhouse is transferred to and vests in the Minister under the Act of 1946, and immediately before it so vested accommodation was being used therein for the relief under the Poor Law Act, 1930, of persons not in need of reception into hospital,—

(a) the Regional Hospital Board shall to the satisfaction of the Minister of Health enter into arrangements with the local authority by which the workhouse was provided whereby, until the Minister otherwise determines, the like accommodation shall be available for the purposes of section twenty-one of this Act as was immediately before the appointed day available for the relief of persons not in need of reception into hospital, and such facilities in relation to the accommodation shall be afforded as may be requisite for those purposes, and

(b) the local authority shall make to the Regional Hospital Board such payments in respect of the accommodation and facilities as may be agreed between the authority and the Board or, in default of agreement, as may be determined by the Minister of Health.

(3) Where any part of the accommodation first referred to in the last foregoing sub-paragraph was being used immediately before the appointed day for the reception or relief of casual poor persons, then, if the Minister of Health after consultation with the National Assistance Board so directs, that sub-paragraph shall apply separately in relation to that part of the accommodation, and shall so apply with the substitution for the reference to section twenty-one of this Act of a reference to section seventeen thereof; and where the Minister gives a direction under this sub-paragraph—

(a) he shall not determine the arrangements made in pursuance of the direction except after consultation with the National Assistance Board;

(b) so long as those arrangements continue in force the local authority shall maintain in the accommodation provided in pursuance of the arrangements a centre for the like purposes as a reception centre maintained by the National Assistance Board, and the centre shall be deemed to be provided by the local authority in pursuance of a requirement under subsection (2) of section seventeen of this Act;

(c) expenditure incurred by the local authority in making payments in accordance with head (6) of sub-paragraph (2) of this paragraph shall be deemed for the purposes of subsection (3) of the said section seventeen to have been incurred with the approval of the National Assistance Board.

(4) Accommodation provided under section twenty-one of this Act in pursuance of arrangements under this paragraph shall be deemed to be provided by the local authority in premises managed by them.