Coal Act 1938

7 After subsection (8) of section five there shall be inserted the following new subsections :—

“(8A) Where a committee of investigation has given a decision under the last foregoing subsection upon a complaint made with respect to the operation of a scheme, any person aggrieved by the decision, or the executive board charged with the duty of administering the scheme, or the central council, as the case may be, may within fourteen days from the date upon which the decision was given (or within such longer period as the Central Appeal Tribunal may in any particular case allow) refer the matter for arbitration by the Central Appeal Tribunal to be constituted as hereinafter provided.

(8B) The Central Appeal Tribunal shall consist of a chairman and two other members appointed by the Board of Trade, and the Board shall appoint as chairman a member of the legal profession and as the other members persons who appear to the Board to be substantially independent of the coal industry or of any other industry in which large quantities of coal are used, and who are not members, or officers or servants, of an organisation of employers or workpeople in the coal-mining industry, practising mining engineers, or in any other manner directly connected with that industry.

(8C) The Board of Trade shall appoint persons having the same qualifications respectively as are requisite in the case of the chairman and other members of the Central Appeal Tribunal to exercise the functions of the chairman and members of the Tribunal in the event of the chairman or any other member being unable to act on any arbitration, and a person so appointed shall, in relation to any arbitration as respects which he is exercising such functions, be deemed to be the chairman or a member, as the case may be, of the Central Appeal Tribunal, and references in this section to ' the chairman ' and to ' the members ' shall be construed accordingly.

(8D) The Central Appeal Tribunal shall not have power to act exceptin the presence of the chairman and both members thereof. Such of the provisions of subsection (3C) of this section as relate to the power to take, and the taking of, evidence by committees of investigation shall apply with respect to the Central Appeal Tribunal as they apply with respect to such committees. Subject to the preceding provisions of this subsection, the procedure of the Central Appeal Tribunal shall be regulated in accordance with rules made by the Board of Trade for the purpose.

(8E) Upon the hearing of any arbitration by the Central Appeal Tribunal, the council or executive board charged with the duty of administering the relevant scheme shall furnish to the Tribunal such returns, accounts and other information relating to the scheme as the Tribunal considers relevant for the purposes of the arbitration.

(8F) The powers of the Board of Trade under subsection (4) of this section shall extend to the Central Appeal Tribunal in like manner as they extend to committees of investigation, but shall include power to pay such remuneration to the members, as well as to the chairman, of the Central Appeal Tribunal as the Board may, with the approval of the Treasury, determine.”