(1)Section 6 of the M1Coal Industry Act 1977 (grants in respect of pit closures) shall cease to have effect, but without prejudice to the payment of any grant under that section in respect of relevant expenditure actually incurred during any period specified in subsection (3) of that section.
(2)The Secretary of State may, with the approval of the Treasury, make grants to the Corporation out of money provided by Parliament towards any relevant expenditure of the Corporation in a financial year of the Corporation ending after March 1987 being expenditure which—
(a)relates to costs falling to be charged to a consolidated profit and loss account of the Corporation and any of their subsidiaries prepared in respect of any period specified as mentioned in subsection (1) above in accordance with a direction given under section 8(1) of the M2Coal Industry Act 1971; or
(b)relates to obligations undertaken by the Corporation in any such period and has been approved by the Secretary of State and the Treasury for the purpose of this paragraph;
but grants may only be made under this subsection towards expenditure within paragraph (a) above to the extent that the expenditure does not exceed the amount of the costs to which it relates or such larger amount as the Secretary of State and the Corporation may with the approval of the Treasury agree.
(3)Grants under subsection (2) above towards expenditure in any financial year shall not exceed one-half of the expenditure in that year which would apart from this subsection be eligible for such grants.
(4)In this section “relevant expenditure” has the same meaning as in the said section 6.