31Supplemental provisions as to Part II.
(1)The Secretary of State may make regulations for carrying this Part of this Act into effect and in particular—
(a)for determining the manner in which, subject to the express provisions of this Part of this Act, any calculation or estimate is to be made for any of the purposes of this Part of this Act and, in particular, for determining—
(i)the authority or person by or to whom any information required for the said purposes is to be given and the time at which and the form in which it is to be given;
(ii)the adjustments to be made for, any abnormal treatment of income or expenditure in accounts;
(b)for determining the times at which payments in respect of Exchequer Equalisation Grants and Exchequer Transitional Grants and payments by local authorities under this Part of this Act are to be made;
(c)for providing that the calculations or estimates by reference to which any payments or grants are made may be treated as either conclusive or provisional or conclusive for some purposes and provisional for other purposes and, in so far as they are treated as provisional, for the making of further calculations or estimates based on information not previously available and for adjusting, in the light thereof, any payments or grants already made;
(d)for modifying the operation of this Part of this Act in relation to any authority if and in so far as any such modification is required in relation to that authority in consequence of any alterations or combinations of authorities or alterations of boundaries:
Provided that regulations shall not be made under paragraph (b) of this subsection with respect to Exchequer Equalisation Grants or Exchequer Transitional Grants except with the consent of the Treasury.
(2)The population of a county (exclusive of any burgh situate therein) or of any burgh in Scotland and the number of children under fifteen years of age in a county or large burgh in Scotland shall be calculated for the purposes of this Part of this Act by reference to estimates of the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Scotland, and the road-mileage of an area shall be taken for the purposes of this Part of this Act to be the total mileage of highways maintained and managed by local authorities or by the Minister of Transport in that area as estimated by the Minister of Transport.
(3)Any reference in any enactment to grants under Part III of the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1929, shall be construed as a reference to grants under this Part of this Act.
(4)In this Part of this Act, except where the context otherwise requires, the expression " county " means a county inclusive of any small burgh situate therein; and the expressions " county " and " county council " mean in relation to counties combined for the purposes mentioned in subsection (1) of section one hundred and eighteen of the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1947, the combined county and the joint county council.