ANNEX A:: OUTLINE OF THE EXISTING LAW RELATING TO THE NHS Part 2 System: family health services Funding NHS contracts
507.The nature of the arrangements between HAs/PCTs 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 were explicitly not contracts enforceable at law (section 4(3)), but which had attaching 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).