Commentary on Sections Governance and management Section 158 – Voting
1019.This section inserts a new paragraph 30 into Schedule 7 to the NHS Act. This gives the Secretary of State, in light of new decision-making powers for foundation trusts in subsequent sections, a regulation-making power subject to the affirmative procedure to alter the associated voting arrangements for directors, governors and members of foundation trusts provided for in this Act. This is to ensure that new voting arrangements for foundation trusts could, if necessary, be modified in light of how they work in practice.
1020.Existing voting provisions unaffected by this Act, such as the majority of governors required to remove a non-executive director, are beyond the scope of this power. In general, beyond provisions on the appointment of non-executive directors by governors, specific voting arrangements for foundation trusts have not been provided for in detail in primary legislation and this section is intended to ensure that the new voting provisions can be modified if necessary. Under this section, the Secretary of State could, for example, change the size of a majority required for approving mergers or for making changes to the constitution of a foundation trust, or specify that such a majority should be of those eligible to vote as opposed to those actually voting.
1021.Subsection (2) provides that any regulations made under this section would be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure.