463.Section 167 gives an IFC authority the power, with the approval of the Secretary of State, to make an agreement with an “eligible body”, authorising the body to perform any of the IFC authority’s functions on its behalf. An agreement may cover either the whole of an IFC district or specified parts of it. The Secretary of State may approve an agreement unconditionally or subject to conditions specified in the approval.
464.The power could not be used to authorise an eligible body to perform functions which would be incompatible with the purposes for which the body was established, or functions relating to the accounts of an IFC authority. Any agreement made under this power would not prevent the IFC authority from performing a function to which the agreement relates. The maximum period for which an agreement could authorise an eligible body to perform a function would be 20 years.