HC Deb 22 July 1958 vol 592 cc356-7

Lords Amendment: In page 4, line 27, at end insert: the amount recoverable being apportioned among the rating authorities of the areas or parts of areas so comprised in proportion to the aggregates of the rateable values shown in the valuation lists respectively in force for those areas or parts of areas on the first day of the year for which the general grant is payable.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (Mr. J. R. Bevins)

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.

This Clause deals with the powers of the Minister to reduce the grant in cases of default, and subsection (2) deals with the case of default by a joint board which is administering a general grant service in the whole of a county or in part of it. In the case of default a county council's general grant may be reduced. Where only part of a county is concerned, the Bill, at an earlier stage, provided, in Clause 3 (2, b), for recovery of the penalty by the county council from the rating authority for the part of the county concerned.

This Amendment sets out a method of apportioning the penalty between the rating areas and it does it on the basis of the rateable values of each rating area or part of the rating area concerned.

Mr. Mitchison

This Amendment seems to provide very suitably for that somewhat obscure offence, the default by a joint board.

Question put and agreed to. [Special Entry.]