95Power to trade in function-related activities through a company
(1)The appropriate person may by order—
(a)authorise best value authorities to do for a commercial purpose anything which they are authorised to do for the purpose of carrying on any of their ordinary functions, and
(b)make provision about the persons in relation to whom authority under paragraph (a) is exercisable.
(2)No order under this section may authorise a best value authority—
(a)to do in relation to a person anything which it is required to do in relation to him under its ordinary functions, or
(b)to do in relation to a person anything which it is authorised, apart from this section, to do in relation to him for a commercial purpose.
(3)An order under this section may be made in relation to—
(a)all best value authorities, particular best value authorities or particular descriptions of best value authority;
(b)all things authorised to be done for the purpose of carrying on a particular function, particular things authorised to be done for that purpose or particular descriptions of thing authorised to be so done.
(4)Power conferred by an order under this section shall only be exercisable through a company within the meaning of Part 5 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 (c. 42) (companies in which local authorities have interests).
(5)A best value authority on which power is conferred by an order under this section shall be treated as a local authority for the purposes of Part 5 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 if it would not otherwise be such an authority, but only in relation to a body corporate through which it exercises, or proposes to exercise, the power conferred by the order.
(6)In its application by virtue of subsection (5), section 70(1) of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 (c. 42) (power to make provision about what a company under the control, or subject to the influence of, a local authority does) shall only apply in relation to the doing for a commercial purpose of the thing to which the order under this section relates.
(7)In this section—
“best value authority” does not include—
(a)a police authority established under section 3 of the Police Act 1996 (c. 16),
(b)the Common Council of the City of London in its capacity as a police authority,
(c)the Metropolitan Police Authority, or
(d)the London Development Agency;
“ordinary functions”, in relation to a best value authority, means functions of the authority which are not functions under this section.