Museums and Galleries Act 1992

Finance, accounts and indemnities

9 Finance for, and accounts of, certain museums and galleries etc

(1) The appropriate Minister may out of money provided by Parliament pay to the bodies specified in Schedule 7 to this Act such sums towards their expenditure as the Treasury may approve.

(2) Payments under this section may be made on such conditions as the appropriate Minister may with the approval of the Treasury impose.

(3) Each of the bodies specified in Schedule 7 to this Act shall keep proper accounts and proper records in relation to those accounts.

(4) Each of those bodies shall prepare a statement of accounts in respect of each financial year, and that statement shall give a true and fair view of the state of the body’s affairs at the end of the financial year and of the body’s income and expenditure in the financial year.

(5) The statement shall comply with any directions given by the appropriate Minister, with the Treasury’s consent, as to—

(a) the information which is to be contained in the statement;

(b) the form which the statement is to take;

(c) the manner in which the information is to be presented; or

(d) the methods and principles according to which the statement is to be prepared.

(6) Each of those bodies shall send their statement to the appropriate Minister at such time as he may direct.

(7) The appropriate Minister shall, on or before 31st August in any year, send to the Comptroller and Auditor General the statements prepared under subsection (4) above for the financial year last ended.

(8) The Comptroller and Auditor General shall examine, certify and report on each statement sent to him under subsection (7) above and shall lay copies of it and of his report before each House of Parliament.

(9) In this section—

• “the appropriate Minister”—

  (a)

  in relation to a body specified in Part I of Schedule 7 to this Act, means the Lord President of the Council; and

  (b)

  in relation to a body specified in Part II of that Schedule, means the Secretary of State;

• “financial year”, in relation to any body, means the period—

  (a)

  beginning with the day appointed under section 11(4) below for the commencement of this section in relation to that body, and

  (b)

  ending with 31st March following that day,

  and each successive period of twelve months.

10 Indemnities

(1) In section 16 of the [1980 c. 17.] National Heritage Act 1980, in subsection (1) (Minister’s power to indemnify institutions, bodies or persons falling within subsection (2) against loss of or damage to objects lent by them to other institutions, bodies or persons falling within that subsection)—

(a) the words “falling within subsection (2) below” shall cease to have effect; and

(b) for the words “falling within that subsection” there shall be substituted the words “which falls within subsection (2) below”;

and, in subsection (2), for the words “referred to above” there shall be substituted the words “which fall within this subsection”.

(2) After that section there shall be inserted—

“16A Reporting of indemnities given under section 16

(1) For each of the successive periods of six months ending with 31st March and 30th September in each year, each of the Ministers shall prepare a report specifying—

(a) the number of undertakings given by him under section 16 above during that period; and

(b) the amount or value, expressed in sterling, of any contingent liabilities as at the end of that period in respect of such of the undertakings given by him under that section at any time as remain outstanding at the end of that period.

(2) A report under subsection (1) above shall be laid before Parliament not later than two months after the end of the period to which it relates.

(3) Subsections (1) and (2) above shall apply in relation to undertakings given under section 16 above by the Department of Education for Northern Ireland—

(a) with the substitution for references to each of the Ministers of references to that Department; and

(b) with the substitution for the reference to Parliament in subsection (2) of a reference to the Northern Ireland Assembly.”