Section 7A: Exercise of Secretary of State's public health functions, National Health Service Act 2006

Section 7A: Exercise of Secretary of State's public health functions

Part 1: Promotion and provision of the health service in England

The Secretary of State may arrange for any of the public health functions of the Secretary of State to be exercised by one or more relevant bodies.

In this section "relevant body" means—

NHS England,

an integrated care board,

a local authority (within the meaning of section 2B),

a combined authority, or

a combined county authority, or

such other body as may be prescribed.

Arrangements under this section may be made on such terms as may be agreed between the parties including—

terms as to payment;

terms prohibiting or restricting a relevant body from making delegation arrangements in relation to a function that is exercisable by it by virtue of arrangements under this section.

In subsection (3)(b) "delegation arrangements" means arrangements made by a person for the exercise of a function by someone else.

Any rights acquired, or liabilities (including liabilities in tort) incurred, in respect of the exercise by a relevant body of any function by virtue of this section are enforceable by or against that body (and no other person).

The reference in subsection (1) to the public health functions of the Secretary of State includes any functions of the Secretary of State exercisable in connection with those functions (including the powers conferred by section 12).

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.