Commentary on Parts Part 3 – Provision of Support to Carers Local eligibility criteria Section 22 - Publication and review of criteria
66.Subsection (1) requires each local authority to publish its eligibility criteria. Publication must be in accordance with the timescales prescribed in regulations made under subsection (2). It is intended that they will be used to require local authorities to have eligibility criteria in place before section 24 (which imposes the duty to support) is commenced. Those regulations will be subject to the negative procedure.
67.The local authority is required to review its eligibility criteria in accordance with subsections (3) to (5). Regulations subject to the negative procedure will set the time frame within which the first review must be undertaken. It is intended that this will be used to bring timing of reviews of eligibility criteria into line with reviews of local carer strategies under Part 5 of the Act. Following a review, the local authority may set revised local eligibility criteria or publish a statement explaining that it does not intend to revise the criteria on this occasion. If the local authority revises the local eligibility criteria, it must have regard to the matters specified in regulations under section 21 and must publish the revised criteria.