Polish Resettlement Act 1947

3 Provision by the Assistance Board of accommodation in camps

(1) The Board may provide accommodation in camps, hostels or other establishments for persons in Great Britain being of any of the categories specified in subsection (2) of the last preceding section, or dependants of persons of any of those categories or of members of any of the Polish resettlement forces serving therewith, or persons formerly dependent on a person who was of any of those categories, or was such a member of any of those forces, at that former time.

(2) The Board may make provision for meeting the needs (other than medical needs as defined in the Unemployment Assistance Act, 1934, or needs as to education), and for promoting the welfare, of persons for whom accommodation is provided under this section, and may make such provision in such manner as appears to them most convenient, whether by themselves providing goods or services, by making payments to others for the provision thereof, by making payments to persons for whom accommodation is provided, or partly in one of those ways and partly in another.

(3) The Board may make arrangements with any government department or other authority or person for the provision of benefits under this section, on behalf and at the expense of the Board, by that authority or person.

(4) The Board may make rules for the well-ordering of camps, hostels or other establishments in which accommodation is provided under this section, and any person who contravenes or fails to comply with a rule so made shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding twenty-five pounds or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, or to both such fine and such imprisonment.

(5) The provision of benefits under this section for any person shall be at the discretion of the Board, and, without prejudice to the generality of this subsection, the Board may render the provision of any benefits thereunder for a person conditional on his being registered for employment in the manner prescribed by rules made under the Unemployment Assistance Act, 1934, if required by the Board so to be, and may render the provision for a person of accommodation, or of accommodation in any particular camp or other establishment, conditional on his observing rules made under the last preceding subsection.

(6) The Board may from time to time fix for benefits provided under this section such scales of charges applicable in different circumstances as may appear to the Board, with the approval of the Treasury, to be appropriate, and may from time to time require payments for such benefits to be made in accordance with the provisions of Part II of the Schedule to this Act.

(7) Section forty-eight of the Unemployment Assistance Act, 1934 (which provides for the prosecution of persons obtaining allowances fraudulently and for the recovery of sums procured by non-disclosure or misrepresentation by way of allowance in excess of allowance that would otherwise have been made) shall apply as respects benefits under this section with the substitution, for references in the said section forty-eight, to such allowances and to the amount of any such excess of allowance, of references to such benefits and to the amount or value of any excess of benefit over what would have been provided but for the non-disclosure or misrepresentation:

(8) The Board shall have, in relation to a person for whom they have power to provide accommodation under this section the like right to complain to a petty sessional court as is conferred by section nineteen of the [20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 17.] Poor Law Act, 1930, on a council therein mentioned in relation to a married woman requiring relief and a person whose relief would be chargeable to the council, and the powers of the court under that section shall be exercisable on such complaint.

(9) The provisions of subsection (3) of section forty-eight of the Unemployment Assistance Act, 1934, as to proceedings on behalf of the Board shall apply to any such proceedings under this section or under Part II of the Schedule to this Act.

(10) In proceedings under subsection (4) of this section prima facie evidence of rules therein mentioned may be given by production of a document certified by an officer of the Board to be a true copy thereof and a document purporting to be so certified shall be deemed to be such a document unless the contrary is proved.

(11) There shall be defrayed out of moneys provided by Parliament any increase attributable to the passing of this section in the sums payable out of such moneys under section forty-seven of the Unemployment Assistance Act, 1934, or section six of the Determination of Needs Act, 1941, and any sums received by the Board under this section or under section forty-eight of the Unemployment Assistance Act, 1934, as applied by. this section, shall be paid into the Exchequer.