Industrial Training Act 1982

11 Levies

(1) An industrial training board may from time to time,

submit to the Commission for the Commission's approval proposals (in this Act referred to as "levy proposals") for the raising and collection of a levy to be imposed for the purpose of raising money towards meeting the board's expenses and the Commission shall submit any proposals approved by it to the Secretary of State.

(2) The levy shall be imposed in accordance with an order made by the Secretary of State (in this Act referred to as "a levy order ") which shall give effect to levy proposals approved by the Commission under subsection (1) above and shall provide for the levy to be imposed on employers in the industry, except in so far as they are exempted from it by the industrial training order, the levy order or an exemption certificate; but nothing in this Act shall be construed as requiring the Secretary of State to make a levy order in a case in which he considers it inexpedient to make one.

(3) Levy proposals must include proposals for exempting from the levy any employer who, in view of the small number of his employees, ought in the opinion of the board to be exempted and the Secretary of State shall not make a levy order in pursuance of levy proposals unless they provide for the exemption of employers who, in view of the small number of their employees, ought in his opinion to be exempted.

(4) Subject to subsection (5) below, levy proposals may include proposals for securing—

(a) that any exemption certificates issued by the board shall not exempt from the whole or a portion of the levy the employers or some of the employers in the industry, or

(b) that no exemption certificates shall be issued by the board;

and the Secretary of State shall not make a levy order in pursuance of any levy proposals unless he is satisfied that the proposals published by the board under section 13(5) below provide for exemption certificates relating to levy (other than that payable by virtue of this subsection) in such cases as he considers appropriate.

(5) If, as a result of such levy proposals as are mentioned in subsection (4) above—

(a) in a case within paragraph (a) of that subsection, the amount of the levy from which an exemption certificate will not exempt any person will exceed 0-2 per cent, of the relevant emoluments ; or

(b) in a case within paragraph (b) of that subsection, the amount of the levy payable by any person will exceed that percentage of the relevant emoluments,

then the Commission shall not approve the levy proposals unless it is of the opinion that they are necessary to encourage adequate training in the industry and the Secretary of State shall not make a levy order in pursuance of the levy proposals unless he is satisfied that the proposals are necessary for that purpose and one of the conditions mentioned in subsection (6) below is satisfied.

(6) The conditions referred to in subsection (5) above are—

(a) that the relevant organisations consider, after taking reasonable steps to ascertain the views of the persons they represent, that the proposals are necessary to encourage adequate training in the industry ;

(b) that the order will be made less than two years after the making of a former levy order giving effect to proposals made by the board in respect of which the Secretary of State was satisfied that the condition in paragraph (a) above applied and either—

(i) the proposals to which the former order gave effect were that no exemption certificates should be issued or that the exemption certificates to be issued should not exempt employers from any of the levy, or

(ii) the proposals to which the former order gave effect were that exemption certificates should not exempt employers from a portion of the levy and the percentage of the relevant emoluments from which under the current proposals the exemption certificates will not exempt any person will not exceed the percentage of relevant emoluments from which he was not exempted under the former order;

(c) that neither of the conditions mentioned in paragraphs (a) and (b) above applies but the proposals are considered by the Secretary of State to be appropriate in the circumstances.

(7) The Secretary of State shall not make a levy order in pursuance of any levy proposals unless the amount which, disregarding any exemption, he estimates would, if the order were made, be payable by virtue of it by any employer in the industry either—

(a) does not exceed an amount which the Secretary of State estimates is equal to one per cent, of the relevant emoluments, or

(b) does exceed the amount mentioned in paragraph (a) above but is considered by him to be appropriate in the circumstances.

(8) In this section—

• " the relevant emoluments " in relation to any person means the aggregate of the emoluments and payments intended to be disbursed as emoluments which are paid and payable by him to or in respect of persons employed in the industry in respect of the period specified in the levy proposals as the period which is relevant for the purposes of this section, and

• "the relevant organisations" means organisations appearing to the Secretary of State to represent more than half the persons who he considers are likely to be liable to make payments by way of levy in consequence of the proposals and organisations appearing to him to repre sent persons who he considers are together likely to be liable to make payments by way of levy in consequence of the levy proposals which amount to more than half the aggregate amount of those payments.