The Secretary of State , NHS England, an integrated care board or a local authority may, for the purpose of securing the provision to a patient of anything to which this subsection applies, make payments, with the patient's consent, to the patient or to a person nominated by the patient.
Subsection (1) applies to—
Subsection (1) is subject to any provision made by regulations under section 12B.
If regulations so provide, an integrated care board may, for the purpose of securing the provision for a patient of services that the board must provide under section 117 of the Mental Health Act 1983 (after-care), make payments, with the patient's consent, to the patient or to a person nominated by the patient ; and the references in this subsection to an integrated care board are, so far as necessary for the purposes of regulations under subsection (2E) of that section, to be read as references to NHS England.
A payment under subsection (1) ... is referred to in this Part as a "direct payment".
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In this section and sections 12B to 12D, "local authority" has the same meaning as in section 2B.