Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947

Rating Authorities and Requisitioning Authorities and General Duties.

209 Rating authorities.

The local authority for the purpose of levying rates to meet expenditure on the functions of the authority or of any other local authority under any public general Act shall be—

(a) in the case of the landward area of a county, the county council; and

(b) in the case of a burgh, the town council thereof;

and the county council and town council as regards the respective areas aforesaid are in this Part of this Act referred to as " rating authorities."

210 Requisitioning authorities.

A local authority, not being the rating authority for the area, exercising any function under any public general Act within that area shall not levy rates within that area to meet expenditure on any such function but shall issue to the rating authority of that area a requisition for payment and-shall receive payment from that authority in accordance with the provisions of this Part of this Act. Such an authority issuing a requisition is in this Part of this Act referred to as a " requisitioning authority."

211 Expenses of local authority under public general Acts to be defrayed out of rates or sums requisitioned.

The expenses of a local authority in exercising functions under any public general Act, so far as not met otherwise, shall if and so far as the authority are a rating authority, be defrayed out of rates levied under this Part of this Act, and if and so far as the authority are a requisitioning authority, be defrayed out of sums requisitioned under this Part of this Act:

Provided that in the case of functions relating to public utility undertakings this section shall apply so far only as any enactment or statutory order relating to such undertakings so provides.

212 Duty of local authority to levy sufficient rates or issue sufficient requisition.

(1) It shall be the duty of every rating authority to levy such rates as will provide sufficient funds to meet such part of the total estimated expenditure to be incurred by the authority during the financial year in respect of which the rate is levied (after taking account of any balance or estimated balance at the end of the last financial year) as is to be met out of moneys raised by rates (including in that expenditure any sums payable to any other local authority under requisitions issued by that authority), together with such additional amount as is in the opinion of the rating authority required to cover expenditure previously incurred or to meet contingencies so far as the same fall to be met out of rates.

(2) It shall be the duty of every requisitioning authority to issue to the rating authority a requisition for payment of such sum as will provide sufficient funds to meet such part of the total estimated expenditure to be incurred by the requisitioning authority during the financial year in respect of which the requisition is issued (after taking account of any balance or estimated balance at the end of the last financial year) as is to be met out of moneys raised by rates levied by the rating authority and out of grants payable to the rating authority under Part III of the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1929, so far as such grants, if any, are properly applicable to such expenditure, together with such additional amount .as is in the opinion of the requisitioning authority required to cover expenditure previously incurred or to meet contingencies so far as the same fall to be met out of rates and out of such grants.

(3) In levying a rate or issuing a requisition for the purposes of this section, account shall be taken only of expenditure to which such rate or the sum in such requisition is properly applicable, and in taking account of any balance or any expenditure previously incurred for the purposes of this section, due regard shall be had to the incidence of the rate to which such balance or expenditure properly relates.

213 Sums to be raised by rates to be ascertained by reference to expenditure on functions within area to which functions relate.

Such sums as are required to be raised by rates, whether by the local authority incurring the expenditure or by some other local authority on the requisition of that authority, for the purpose of defraying expenditure on a function of the authority shall be ascertained by reference to the expenditure of the authority in discharging the function throughout the area to which the function relates.