Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929

14 Schemes for administration of functions.

(1) The county council of every county and the town council of every large burgh shall on or before the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and thirty, prepare and submit to the Secretary of State for has approval a scheme or schemes of administrative arrangements (in this Act referred to as administrative schemes) proposed to be made for discharging throughout their area the functions of the council relating to (a) education, (b) poor law, (c) public health, (d) lunacy and mental deficiency, and (e) in the case of a county council, roads, and for that purpose every transferor authority and their officers shall give to the transferee authority such information with respect to existing arrangements as the transferee authority may require:

Provided that the council in preparing the administrative scheme so far as relating to education shall consult with the education authority of the area.

(2) Any administrative scheme may and shall, if the Secretary of State so requires, provide that the council shall appoint a committee or committees for the purposes of any functions to which the scheme relates, that such matters as may be specified in the scheme shall stand referred to such committee or committees, and that the council before exercising any function relating to a matter so standing referred shall, unless in their opinion the matter is urgent, receive and consider the report of the committee with respect to the matter in question.

(3) Every administrative scheme (other than a scheme relating to education) made by a county council may provide for the county council appointing to act as agents of the council, the town council of any small burgh within the county or the district council of a district within the county or a joint committee of such a town council and district council (of which joint committee the members of the county council for the burgh and district shall be members), to carry out the functions specified in the scheme so far as exercisable within the small burgh or district or small burgh and district as the case may be, but subject always to the terms and conditions set forth in the scheme.

(4) An administrative scheme may provide that any assistance to which this subsection applies, which might after the commencement of this Act be provided either by way of poor relief or by virtue of any enactment other than the Poor Law Acts, shall be provided exclusively under and by virtue of the enactments other than the Poor Law Acts and not by way of poor relief, but nothing in this subsection or in any scheme shall diminish or otherwise affect the duty of the council to provide relief for the poor.

The assistance to which this subsection applies shall be the maintenance and treatment of sick persons, including, without prejudice to the said generality, persons suffering from any infectious or other disease, or persons mentally deficient, or the provision made for the health of expectant mothers, nursing mothers, or children under five years of age, or for blind persons, or for the feeding, clothing and treatment of school children.

(5) Every administrative scheme relating to education made by the council of a county within which a large burgh is included for the purpose of education shall, unless the county council and the town council of the large burgh otherwise agree, make provision whereby for the purpose of the medical inspection, supervision, and treatment of the children attending the schools within the burgh the county council shall utilise to such extent, and on such terms and conditions as the councils agree or, failing agreement, as the Department of Health determine, the medical and nursing staff of the town council and the clinics and hospitals, under the control of" that council. The county council before making any such scheme and the Department before approving any such scheme shall consult with the town council, and any such scheme, when so approved, shall be binding on the town council.

(6) In order to meet as far as practicable the interests and convenience of the county council, the town council of the small burgh concerned and the inhabitants thereof, every administrative scheme of a county council relating to roads shall make provision with respect to the opening or breaking up of any classified road within a small burgh whether by the county council for the purpose of reconstructing, repairing or maintaining the road, or by the town council for the purpose of laying, replacing, repairing, or maintaining water, sewer, gas, or other pipes or electric cables or other like things under the said road.

(7) In any case where the Public Libraries Acts are in operation within any part of the landward area of a county, the administrative scheme of the county council relating to education may provide for the administration of the said Acts throughout the areas within which they are in operation being under the general supervision of the education committee, for the appointment as a library committee for each of the said areas of the district council of the district or of a committee consisting to the extent of not less than one-third and not more than one-half of persons who, not being members of the education committee, are resident within the area, and for the functions of the committees under the said Acts being exercised by the education committee or the library committees as specified in the scheme, and where the scheme makes such provision as aforesaid the provisions of the Public Libraries Acts relating to the appointment of committees shall not apply.

(8) The Secretary of State may approve the scheme either as submitted or with such modifications and amendments as he thinks proper, and upon approval the council shall discharge their functions throughout their area in accordance with the scheme.

(9) If a county or town council fail by the date aforesaid to submit to the Secretary of State a scheme in accordance with the provisions of this section, he may, after consultation with such authorities as appear to him to be interested, himself make a scheme for the purpose, but before making such scheme he shall publish in one or more newspapers published or circulating in the area to which the scheme relates a notice stating his intention to make a scheme, and that a copy of the draft scheme is open to inspection at a specified place, and that representations thereon may be made tohimwithin fourteen days after the publication of the notice, and shall consider any representations which maybe submitted to him within that period, and any scheme so made shall have effect as if it were a scheme submitted by the council and approved by him.

(10) Any scheme submitted by a council and approved by the Secretary of State as aforesaid may be revoked or varied by a new scheme submitted and approved in accordance with the foregoing provisions, and any scheme made by the Secretary of State as hereinbefore provided may be revoked or varied by a new scheme submitted by the council to which it relates and approved by the Secretary of State, or by a new scheme made by the Secretary of State in accordance with the provisions hereinbefore contained.

(11) This section shall come into operation on the third day of December, nineteen hundred and twenty-nine.