ANNEX A: OUTLINE OF THE EXISTING LAW Existing legislation about the NHS The National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990 NHS Contracts
380.The nature of the arrangements between Health Authorities and trusts is not that of an ordinary contract enforceable at law. Instead the 1990 Act provided for a system of NHS contracts (section 4), which are explicitly not contracts enforceable at law (section 4(3)), but which had attached to them a special form of internal arbitration by the Secretary of State. The list of bodies between whom certain agreements take the form of NHS contracts rather than ordinary contracts is contained in section 4(2).