HC Deb 18 November 1937 vol 329 cc715-6

Resolution reported, That, for the purposes of any Act of the present Session to secure that precautions shall be taken with a view to the protection of persons and property from injury or damage in the event of hostile attack from the air, it is expedient to provide for the payment out of moneys provided by Parliament of such sums as may be necessary to defray—

  1. (a) any expenses incurred by the Secretary of State in the general superintendence and direction of measures taken under the said Act, or in providing such services and training such persons and acquiring such equipment, appliances, and other material as he considers it necessary to furnish for the purpose of affording such protection as aforesaid; and
  2. (b) the cost of grants to local authorities in respect of expenditure approved by the Secretary of State incurred by them whether before or after the passing of the said Act, not exceeding in the case of any authority a percentage of the approved expenditure of the authority not less than sixty per cent. nor more than seventy-five per cent. determined by reference to 716 scales graduated according to the proportion which the weighted population bears to the estimated population:
Provided that, if the approved expenditure of a local authority for any year exceeds the grant to the authority calculated as aforesaid by an amount in excess of the produce of a rate in England of one penny or in Scotland of four-fifths of a penny in the pound, the grant payable in respect of so much of the approved expenditure as would cause the levying of a rate in excess of one penny or four-fifths of a penny in the pound, as the case may be, may be a percentage thereof determined by reference to the scales aforesaid but not in any case less than seventy-five per cent. nor more than eighty-five per cent. For the purposes of this Resolution the expressions 'weighted population' and 'estimated population' mean respectively the weighted population and the estimated population of the county, county borough, City of London, metropolitan borough, or large burgh, as the case may be, or, in relation to the council of a county district or small burgh, of the county in which the district or small burgh is situated, as determined at the date of the commencement of the said Act for the purpose of the apportionment of the General Exchequer Contribution under the Local Government Acts, 1929.

Resolution agreed to.