Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1944 c. 10 |
| Year | 1944 |
Disabled Persons (Employment) Act, 1944
(7 & 8 Geo. 6) CHAPTER 10.
An Act to make further and better provision for enabling persons handicapped by disablement to secure employment, or work on their own account, and for purposes connected therewith.
[1st March 1944]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Disabled persons.
1 Definition of ‘disabled person.’
(1) In this Act the expression ‘disabled person’ means a person who, on account of injury, disease, or congenital deformity, is substantially handicapped in obtaining or keeping employment, or in undertaking work on his own account, of a kind which apart from that injury, disease or deformity would be suited to his age, experience and qualifications; and the expression ‘disablement’, in relation to any person, shall be construed accordingly.
(2) For the purposes of the definitions contained in the preceding subsection, the expression ‘disease’ shall be construed as including a physical or mental condition arising from imperfect development of any organ.
Vocational training and industrial rehabilitation courses.
2 Vocational training courses.
(1) The Minister of Labour and National Service (in this Act referred to as ‘the Minister’) may with the approval of the Treasury provide, or make arrangements for the provision by other persons of, facilities (in this Act referred to as ‘vocational training courses’) for the training of disabled persons, not being under the age of sixteen years, who are in need of training in order to render them competent to undertake employment, or work on their own account, of a kind suited to their age, experience and general qualifications.
(2) The Minister may make arrangements with any other government department for the exercise by that department of any of the powers conferred on him by this section.
(3) Where the Minister or any other government department makes arrangements under this section for the provision of a vocational training course by other persons, the Minister or that department may defray or contribute towards the cost incurred by those persons of the provision of the facilities.
3 Industrial rehabilitation courses.
(1) The Minister may with the approval of the Treasury provide, or make arrangements for the provision by other persons of, such facilities as are mentioned in this section (in this Act referred to as ‘industrial rehabilitation courses’) for disabled persons, not being under the age of sixteen years, who, by reason of unfitness arising from their injury, disease or deformity, are in need of such facilities in order to render them fit for undertaking employment, or work on their own account, of a kind in which they were engaged before they became disabled or of some other kind suited to their age, experience and qualifications, or for making use of a vocational training course.
(2) The facilities which may be provided under this section shall consist of facilities whereby such persons may, under adequate medical supervision and under circumstances conducive to the restoration of fitness, obtain physical training, exercise, and occupation conducive to the restoration thereof, and such other incidental facilities as may appear to the Minister to be requisite for enabling persons attending an industrial rehabilitation course to obtain the full benefit thereof.
(3) Where the Minister makes arrangements under this section for the provision of an industrial rehabilitation course by other persons, he may defray or contribute towards the cost incurred by those persons of the provision of the facilities.
4 Payments to persons attending courses.
4. The Minister, or, in the case of a course provided by, or under arrangements made by, another government department, that department, may defray, or contribute towards, expenses incurred by persons attending vocational training courses or industrial rehabilitation courses in travelling to and from the place where the course is held, and may make payments to or in respect of such persons, up to such amounts as the Minister or that department may with the approval of the Treasury determine and in such manner as the Minister or that department may determine.
5 Expenses of courses to be defrayed out of moneys provided by Parliament.
5. Expenses incurred by the Minister or any other government department under any of the three last preceding sections shall be defrayed out of moneys provided by Parliament.
Provisions for enabling registered disabled persons to obtain employment or to undertake work on their own account.
6 Register of disabled persons.
(1) The Minister shall establish and maintain a register of disabled persons (in this Act referred to as ‘the register’).
(2) The register shall be kept in such form, and entries therein, and alterations and removals of entries therein and therefrom, shall be made in such manner, as the Minister may determine.
(3) A person whose name is for the time being in the register is in this Act referred to as a ‘person registered as handicapped by disablement’.
(4) The Minister may make regulations prescribing the manner in which the fact that a person's name is for the time being in the register may be proved, including, without prejudice to the generality of this power, regulations as to the issue of certificates for that purpose and as to the custody, use and delivery up thereof.
7 Entry of names of disabled persons in the register.
(1) The Minister may make regulations prescribing matters which are to constitute conditions of, or disqualifications from, the entry in the register of the names of any persons, either generally or in particular circumstances.
The matters which may be prescribed under this subsection shall be such as must in the opinion of the Minister be so prescribed in order to secure that the fact that a person's name is in the register will afford reasonable assurance of his being a person capable of entering into and keeping employment, or of undertaking work on his own account, under the conditions under which in accordance with the provisions of this Act employment may be offered to him or such work may be available for him, and the said matters shall, without prejudice to the generality of this provision, include—
(a ) the fact that a person is under a prescribed age;
(b ) unreasonable refusal or failure to attend a vocational training or industrial rehabilitation course;
(c ) except in the case of a person who has served whole-time in the armed forces of the Crown, in the merchant navy or the mercantile marine, or in any of the capacities mentioned in the First Schedule to this Act, the fact that a person is not ordinarily resident in Great Britain;
(d ) habitual bad character.
(2) A person who desires his name to be entered in the register shall make application to the Minister in that behalf in the prescribed manner, and, on an application in that behalf being duly made,—
(a ) if the Minister is satisfied that the applicant is a disabled person and that his disablement is likely to continue for six months or more from the time of the entry of his name in the register, that any prescribed condition as to the entry of names in the register applicable to him is satisfied and that he is not subject to any prescribed disqualification in that behalf, his name shall be entered in the register;
(b ) in any other case, the Minister shall refer the application to a district advisory committee for their recommendations on the issue as to which he is not satisfied and after considering their recommendations shall determine it, and if he determines it in favour of the applicant his name shall be entered in the register:
Provided that a person being a 1914-18 disablement pensioner shall be treated for the purposes of this subsection as a disabled person and as one whose disablement is likely to continue for six months or more from the time of the entry of his name in the register, and the name of such a person may be entered in the register without his making any application in that behalf.
(3) In this Act the expression ‘1914-18 disablement pensioner’ means a person in receipt of, or entitled to receive,—
(a ) under any Royal Warrant, Order in Council, Order or Scheme administered by the Minister of Pensions and relating to the retired pay or pensions of officers, seamen, marines, soldiers or airmen or other persons disabled within the meaning of that Warrant or other instrument in consequence of any war carried on as mentioned in section two of the War Pensions Act, 1920 , retired pay or a pension in respect of his disablement within the meaning of that instrument, or an allowance...
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