The Health and Care Act 2022 is a comprehensive reform statute governing the organisation and delivery of health and social care in England. Its primary objective is to restructure the National Health Service (NHS) to promote integration, collaboration, and system-wide planning, replacing earlier market-oriented mechanisms with coordinated governance arrangements. The Act introduces new institutional actors, expands the strategic role of the Secretary of State, and amends the National Health Service Act 2006 extensively to reflect a more centralized and integrated model of service delivery. A central feature of the Act is the creation of Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), which assume responsibility for planning and commissioning health services at the regional level. These bodies replace clinical commissioning groups and are tasked with coordinating health services, reducing inequalities, improving quality, and integrating healthcare with social care and related services. The Act also enhances duties relating to public involvement, research, innovation, and climate change, embedding broader policy objectives into the statutory framework governing NHS decision-making. In addition, the Act strengthens the role of central government oversight by granting the Secretary of State greater powers to direct NHS England and influence service configuration. It introduces provisions on financial accountability, including consolidated accounts and funding mechanisms tied to integration objectives, as well as reforms to data-sharing and information systems. Across its provisions, the statute relies heavily on amendments, insertions, and substitutions within existing legislation, reflecting an incremental but wide-ranging restructuring of the legal framework for health governance. Schedule 18 is specifically dedicated to the advertising of less healthy food and drink. It inserts new provisions into the Communications Act 2003 to restrict advertising of identifiable less healthy food and drink products on television, on-demand programme services, and online. In particular, it establishes a 5:30 am to 9:00 pm watershed for television and on-demand programme services, and introduces a prohibition on paid-for online advertising of such products, subject to exemptions including those for certain small and medium-sized enterprises and other categories defined by regulation. The schedule uses the 2011 Nutrient Profiling Technical Guidance as the reference point for determining whether a product is “less healthy,” and gives the Secretary of State power to define relevant product categories, exemptions, and related guidance by regulation.
Isle of Man (UK) · 2022-04-28