HC Deb 06 December 1932 vol 272 cc1574-6
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL

I beg to move, in page 90, line 23, to leave out the word "is," and to insert instead thereof the word "are."

This and the next amendments are not quite drafting Amendments. They provide for the manner in which the board may give notice that a particular contract was not reasonably necessary in their opinion in the ordinary course of business and therefore ought not to be transferred to the hoard.

Amendment agreed to.

Further Amendments made: In page 90, line 33, leave out the word "three," and insert instead thereof the word "six."

In page 91, line 6, leave out the words "(which consent shall not be unreasonably withheld)."

In line 22, leave out Sub-sections (6) to (11), and insert instead thereof the words: (6) For the purpose of securing a proper adjustment as between the board and each of the companies specified in Part I or Part 11 of the First Schedule to this Act (other than the South Metropolitan Electric Tramways and Lighting Company, Limited) (which companies are in this section referred to as transferred companies ') in respect of the earnings of those companies during the period commencing on the first day of January, nineteen hundred and thirty-one, and ending on the day preceding the appointed clay (which period is in this section referred to as the final period ') the following provisions shall have effect. (7) Between the commencement of this Act and the appointed day no sums shall be distributed by any transferred company by way of dividend or otherwise in respect of any part of the final period except such as are certified by an auditor approved by the Minister (in this section referred to as the approved auditor ') as being properly available for distribution as having been earned in the part of the final period in respect of which the distribution is to be made. (8) As soon as may be after the appointed day the approved auditor shall ascertain and certify the sums which have been earned (after charging interest on any debenture stock) by each of the transferred companies (other than the Metropolitan Electric Tramways, Limited, and the London United Tramways, Limited) during the final period so as to be properly available for distribution, and have not been distributed before the appointed day (which sums are in this section referred to as the undistributed earnings). (9) The auditor, in certifying any sum under this section, shall—

  1. (a) in the case of an Underground Company, have regard to any agreement as to the payment of revenues into a common fund made in pursuance of the London Electric Railway Companies' Facilities Act, 1915;
  2. (b) in the case of the London General Omnibus Company, Limited, and in the case of the Tramways (M.E.T.) Omnibus Company, Limited, exclude all sums received by the company during the final period by way of dividend on the shares of any Underground Company in respect of any period before the final period, and shall include all sums payable by way of such dividend in respect of the final period; and
    3. 1576
  3. (c) in the case of the London General Omnibus Company, Limited, shall add back any sums set aside by the company out of the revenues of the final period for the purpose of the redemption of any debenture stock of the company.
(10) Each of the transferred companies shall, subject to the provisions of subsection (12) of this section, be entitled to retain out of the assets of its undertaking transferred to the board by this Act a sum sufficient to pay the interest accrued up to the appointed day and unpaid on any debenture stock of the company, and the sum so retained shall be applied by the company in the payment of that interest accordingly. (7) So soon as the undistributed earnings have been ascertained and certified the board shall, subject to the provisions of Sub-section (12) of this section, repay to each of the transferred companies (other than the Metropolitan Electric Tramways, Limited, and the London United Tramways, Limited) the amount of its undistributed earnings. (8) Where, in pursuance of this section, any sums are to be retained by, or repaid to, any transferred company, there shall be deducted from the sums so to be retained or repaid a sum equal to the Income Tax thereon at the standard rate of income Tax prescribed by section fifteen of the Finance Act, 1932. (13) In this section the expression the Underground Companies means the companies specified in Part I of the First Schedule to this Act."—[The Attorneyneneral.]