(1)It shall be the duty—
(a)of the Railways Board forthwith after the appointed day for the purposes of this section, and
(b)of the Freight Corporation forthwith after the appointed day for the purposes of section 1(1) of this Act,
to undertake a review of the affairs of the Board or, as the case may be, the Corporation for the purpose of determining whether the carrying on of their activities is organised, so far as regards the direction thereof, in the most efficient manner and to report their conclusions to the Minister, and so often thereafter as occasion seems to them to require it, or as the Minister may require, to undertake a further such review and to report similarly.
(2)Before reaching conclusions in consequence of a review undertaken in pursuance of subsection (1) of this section, the Board or, as the case may be, the Corporation shall seek consultation with organisations appearing to them to represent substantial proportions of, or of any class of, the persons in the employment of, or of any subsidiary of, the Board or, as the case may be, the Corporation.
(3)The first report under subsection (1) of this section by the Railways Board or the Freight Corporation must be made before the expiration of the period of twelve months beginning with the appointed day referred to in paragraph (a) or, as the case may be, paragraph (b) of that subsection or such longer period as the Minister may allow.
(4)The Minister shall lay before each House of Parliament a copy of each report under subsection (1) of this section.
(5)After considering any report made to him under subsection (1) of this section, the Minister may give to the Railways Board or the Freight Corporation or each of them such directions as, after consultation with the authority to whom the directions are given, appear to him to be requisite to secure that the carrying on of their respective activities is organised, so far as regards the direction thereof, in the most efficient manner.
(6)The Railways Board or the Freight Corporation shall not make, or permit to be made, any substantial change in the manner in which the carrying on of their activities is organised, so far as regards the direction thereof, except—
(a)in pursuance of a direction given by the Minister under subsection (5) of this section or under section 6(1) of this Act; or
(b)in accordance with a scheme duly approved under section 7 of this Act; or
(c)in accordance with an order under section 8 of this Act; or
(d)with the consent of the Minister.
(1)This section applies to the following authorities namely, the Boards and the new authorities.
(2)It shall be incumbent on each of the authorities to whom this section applies to take such steps as appear to them to be practicable and desirable for promoting—
(a)research on lines settled from time to time with the approval of the Minister into matters affecting, or arising out of, the exercise of the functions of that authority or of any subsidiary of that authority; and
(b)the doing of such work as is requisite to enable—
(i)the results of any research into any such matter as aforesaid (whether or not promoted by that authority); and
(ii)anything resulting from any idea affecting, or arising out of, the exercise of any of those functions, to be turned to account;
but nothing in this subsection shall be construed as imposing upon that authority, either directly or indirectly, any form of duty or liability enforceable by proceedings before any court to which that authority would not otherwise be subject.
(3)An authority to whom this section applies may take such steps as aforesaid with respect to any matter either by themselves carrying out the necessary research or doing the necessary work or by arranging for that research to be carried out or that work to be done by some other person with or without assistance (including financial assistance) from that authority ; but nothing in this section shall authorise any such authority to do themselves, either directly or through a subsidiary, any work such as is mentioned in subsection (2)(b) of this section which the authority would not have power to do apart from this section.
(4)In the application of this section to the Scottish Group, the reference to the Minister shall be construed as a reference to the Secretary of State.
(5)In section 27(3) of the Act of 1962 for the words " education and research " there shall be substituted the words " and education ".