(1)The Secretary of State may authorise a body to carry on in the United Kingdom such of the classes of insurance business specified in Schedule 1 or 2 to this Act, or such parts of those classes, as may be specified in the authorisation.
(2)An authorisation under this section may be restricted to industrial assurance business or to reinsurance business; and a body may not carry on industrial assurance business by virtue of an authorisation under this section unless the authorisation expressly extends to such business.
(3)An authorisation under this section may identify classes or parts of classes of general business by referring to the appropriate groups specified in Part II of Schedule 2 to this Act.
(4)On the issue to a body of an authorisation under this section, any previous authorisation of that body under this section or section 4 below shall lapse.
(1)A body that was, immediately before the commencement of this section, authorised under section 3 of the 1974 Act to carry on in the United Kingdom insurance business of a class relevant for the purposes of that Act (or of any part of such a class) shall be authorised to carry on there insurance business of the corresponding class specified in Schedule 1 or 2 to this Act (or of the appropriate part of that class).
(2)For the purposes of subsection (1) above, each of the two classes of long term business relevant for the purposes of the 1974 Act shall be taken to correspond with classes I, II, III, IV, VI, and VII in Schedule 1 to this Act; and a class of general business relevant for the purposes of the 1974 Act shall be taken to correspond with the class identified in Part I of Schedule 2 to this Act by the same number.
(3)A body may not carry on industrial assurance business by virtue of this section unless it was carrying on such business immediately before the commencement of this Act.