Electricity Act 1957

3 Establishment, constitution and functions of Electricity Council

(1) There shall be established a Council, to be called the Electricity Council, who shall, as from the vesting date, perform the functions assigned to them by or under this Act, together with such functions of the Central Authority under the principal Act and other enactments as by virtue of this Act are transferred to the Electricity Council.

(2) The Electricity Council shall be constituted as follows:—

(a) the Minister shall appoint a person to be the chairman of the Council, and shall appoint two other persons to be deputy chairmen of the Council, and may (in addition to the members so appointed) appoint as members of the Council such number, not exceeding three, of other persons (being persons appearing to the Minister to be qualified as mentioned in subsection (3) of the last preceding section) as he may from time to time determine;

(b) three other members shall be the person for the time being holding office as chairman of the Generating Board, and such other members of that Board as may be designated by that Board ; and

(c) the remaining members shall be the persons for the time being holding the office of chairman of an Area Board:

Provided that the deputy chairman of an Area Board shall be entitled to attend meetings of the Electricity Council in place of the chairman of that Board during any vacancy in the office of chairman or in the event of the chairman being unable to attend owing to illness or absence from Great Britain; and any member of the Generating Board designated by the Board in that behalf shall be entitled to attend meetings of the Electricity Council—

(i) in place of the chairman of the Generating Board, during any vacancy in the office of chairman of that Board, or

(ii) in place of any of the members of the Council referred to in paragraph (b) of this subsection, in the event of any inability of that member to attend owing to illness or absence from Great Britain,

and any person attending a meeting of the Electricity Council by virtue of this proviso in place of another person shall, in relation to that meeting, have the same rights, powers and duties as the person in whose place he attends.

(3) A person who is for the time being a member of an Electricity Board shall not be eligible to be appointed by the Minister by virtue of paragraph (a) of the last preceding subsection to be a member of the Electricity Council, whether as chairman, deputy chairman or otherwise; and, notwithstanding anything in the last preceding section or in any other enactment, a person who is for the time being a member of the Electricity Council so appointed shall not be eligible for appointment as a member of an Electricity Board.

(4) Without prejudice to any other functions assigned or transferred to the Electricity Council as mentioned in subsection (1) of this section, it shall as from the vesting date be the duty of that Council—

(a) to advise the Minister on questions affecting the electricity supply industry and matters relating thereto; and

(b) to promote and assist the maintenance and development by Electricity Boards in England and Wales of an efficient, co-ordinated and economical system of electricity supply.

(5) The Electricity Council shall have power, if so authorised by all the Electricity Boards in England and Wales, or by any group of those Boards, to perform services for, or act on behalf of, the Boards concerned in relation to matters of common interest to those Boards.

(6) Subsection (5) of section two of the principal Act (which confers ancillary powers on Electricity Boards), and subsections (1), (6), (7) and (8) of section three of that Act (which relate respectively to the incorporation of Electricity Boards, to the remuneration, allowances and pensions of members of Electricity Boards, to the power of the Minister to make regulations with respect to Electricity Boards, and to the regulation of their procedure subject to any such regulations) shall apply in relation to the Electricity Council as they apply in relation to any of the Electricity Boards in England and Wales.

(7) The power to make regulations under subsection (7) of section three of the principal Act, as applied in relation to the Electricity Council by the last preceding subsection, shall be exercisable by statutory instrument; and any instrument containing any such regulations shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

(8) For the avoidance of doubt it is hereby declared that the provisions of this section as to the functions of the Electricity Council (including the provisions of subsection (5) of section two of the principal Act as applied to that Council) relate only to the capacity of the Electricity Council as a statutory corporation ; and nothing in those provisions shall be construed as authorising the disregard by that Council of any enactment or rule of law.