Local Government and Miscellaneous Financial Provisions (Scotland) Act 1958

PART I Exchequer Grants and Education (Scotland) Fund

1 General grants to local authorities

(1) For the year beginning on the sixteenth day of May, nineteen hundred and fifty-nine, and subsequent years the Secretary of State shall make grants to local authorities in accordance with the provisions of this Part of this Act; and those grants (hereinafter referred to as " general grants ") shall be in lieu of the grants paid or payable for those years under any enactment passed before this Act other than the Police (Scotland) Act, 1956, in respect of the expenditure (hereinafter referred to as " relevant expenditure ") specified in the First Schedule to this Act.

(2) Subject to the provisions of the next following section the Secretary of State shall by order, fix the aggregate amount of the general grants payable for the year beginning on the said sixteenth day of May and each subsequent year; and, subject to the provisions of the next following subsection and of sections three and eighteen of this Act, the general grant payable to any local authority for any year shall be such proportion of the aggregate amount so fixed for that year as shall be ascertained in relation to that authority in accordance with the Second Schedule to this Act.

(3) For the purpose of making adjustments in respect of the common expenditure and other matters specified in the Third Schedule to this Act—

(a) the aggregate amount fixed under the last foregoing sub-section for any year shall, before apportionment, be reduced in accordance with the provisions of Part I of that Schedule, and

(b) the general grants payable to local authorities for any year shall be adjusted inter se in accordance with the provisions of Part II of that Schedule.

(4) The general grant payable to any local authority shall be paid at such times as the Secretary of State may with the consent of the Treasury direct, and shall be applied by the authority towards meeting expenditure which, but for the grant, would fell to be defrayed out of the county, or, as the case may be, the burgh, rate as defined in subsection (1) of section two hundred and twenty-four of the Act of 1947.

(5) An order made under subsection (2) of this section (hereinafter referred to as a " general grant order ") shall be made by the Secretary of State with the consent of the Treasury and after consultation with such associations of local authorities as appear to him to fee concerned, shall be laid before the Commons House of Parliament together with a report by the Secretary of State explaining the considerations leading to the provisions of the order and shall not have effect until approved by a resolution of that House.

(6) General grant orders shall be made in advance for successive periods (hereinafter referred to as " grant periods ") of not less than two or more than three years, but any general grant order may make different provision for different years in the grant period to which it relates.

2 Fixing of annual aggregate amount of general grants

(1) In fixing the aggregate amount of the general grants for any year the Secretary of State shall take into consideration—

(a) the latest information available to him of the rate of relevant expenditure (excluding, except in so far as the Secretary of State with the consent of the Treasury otherwise determines, any expenditure of a descriptor in respect of which no grant has been paid for any year ending before the sixteenth day of May, nineteen hundred and fifty-nine) and the current level of prices, costs and remuneration, together with any future variation in that level which can be foreseen ;

(b) any probable fluctuation in the demand for the services giving rise to relevant expenditure, so far as the fluctuation is attributable to circumstances prevailing in Scotland as a whole which are not under the control of local authorities; and

(c) the need for developing those services and the extent to which, having regard to general economic conditions, it is reasonable to develop those services.

(2) If it appears to the Secretary of State that during any grant period any unforeseen increase has taken place in the level of prices, costs or remuneration, and that its effect on the cost of providing the services giving rise to relevant expenditure is of such magnitude that it ought not to fall entirely on local authorities, the Secretary of State shall by order (made in the like manner and subject to the like provisions as a general grant order) increase the aggregate amount of the general grants for such year of that grant period (beginning either before or after the making of the order) as may be specified in the order.

3 Power to reduce general grant where service not adequately provided, and to prescribe standards of administration

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, if the Secretary of State is satisfied that there has been a failure to achieve or maintain reasonable standards in the provision of any of the services giving rise to relevant expenditure, regard being had to the standards maintained by local authorities generally, and considers that the general grant payable to any local authority, or local authorities, who in his opinion are concerned in the failure, ought therefore to be reduced, he may, after affording to the authority or authorities so concerned an opportunity of making representations, make and cause to be laid before Parliament a report stating the amount of the reduction, the reasons therefor, and any representations with respect thereto made by the authority or authorities; and if the report is approved by a resolution of the Commons House of Parliament the Secretary of State may reduce the grant accordingly.

(2) The Secretary of State may make regulations, subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament, for prescribing standards and general requirements for the administration of any of the services giving rise to relevant expenditure, and in determining for the purposes of this section whether there has been any such failure as is referred to in the foregoing subsection regard shall be had to any such regulations and any other standards or requirements imposed by or under any enactment.

(3) Where the general grant payable to any local authority for any year has been reduced under this section it shall, in any calculation for the purposes of section five of the Act of 1954 of the relevant local expenditure for the area of the local authority for that year, be deemed to have been paid in full.

(4) For the purposes of this section any service provided by a combination or joint committee of local authorities shall be deemed to be provided jointly by the constituent local authorities of the combination or joint committee.

4 Certain grants to be discontinued

(1) None of the grants to which this section applies shall be payable for the year beginning on the sixteenth day of May, nineteen hundred and fifty-nine, or any part of that year, or for any subsequent year.

(2) This section applies to the grants payable under—

(a) subsection (2) of section seventeen of the Ministry of Transport Act, 1919, in respect of the salary and establishment charges of highway engineers and surveyors;

(b) subsection (3) of section fifty-seven of the Road Traffic Act, 1930 (which relates to weighbridges and other weighing-machines for vehicles);

(c) section eleven of the Prevention of Damage by Pests, Act, 1949; and

(d) paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of section twenty-four of the Vehicles (Excise) Act, 1949 (which provides for grants representing the amounts which, if the Roads Act, 1920, had not passed, would have been received by local authorities on account of fees or charges for the licensing of mechanically propelled hackney carriages not being public service vehicles).

5 Abolition of Education (Scotland) Fund

(1) The Education (Scotland) Fund constituted by section sixty-nine of the Education (Scotland) Act, 1946, shall cease to exist and any balance in the Fund at the coming into operation of this section shall be paid into the Exchequer.

(2) All expenses which are directed or authorised by or under any enactment to be paid out of the Education (Scotland) Fund shall be defrayed by the Secretary of State out of moneys provided by Parliament, and all sums which are so directed to be paid into the said Fund shall be paid into the Exchequer.

(3) This section shall come into operation on the first day of April, nineteen hundred and fifty-nine.

6 Modifications in enactments consequential on this Part of this Act and the Local Government Act, 1958

(1) The enactments specified in Part I of the Fourth Schedule to this Act shall, subject to Part III of that Schedule, have effect subject to the modifications specified in relation to them respectively in the said Part I, being modifications consequential on this Part of this Act.

(2) The enactments specified in Part II of the Fourth Schedule to this Act shall, subject to Part III of that Schedule, have effect subject to the modifications specified in relation to them respectively in the said Part II, being modifications consequential on the Local Government Act, 1958.

PART II Valuation and Rating

7 Rateable value of salmon fishings and other industrial and freight transport lands and heritages

(1) For the year beginning on the sixteenth day of May, nineteen hundred and fifty-nine, and subsequent years the proportion which the rateable value of industrial and freight transport lands and heritages (so far as occupied and used, or treated as occupied and used, for industrial or freight transport purposes) is to bear to the net annual value, or, as the case may be, the value on which any rate of the description referred to in paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of section forty-five of the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1929, would have been leviable if that Act had not passed, shall be doubled; and accordingly the said subsection (1) shall have effect in relation to those years with the substitution for any reference to division by four of a reference to division by two.

(2) For the year beginning on the sixteenth day of May, nineteen hundred and fifty-nine, and subsequent years the rights of salmon fishing to which this subsection applies shall, subject to the following provisions of this section, be deemed for the purpose of making up any valuation roll to be agricultural lands and heritages :

Provided that nothing in this section shall affect any right of a district fishery board to require the assessor to value and enter such rights of salmon fishing in the valuation roll for the purposes of fishery assessments only.

(3) The last foregoing subsection—

(a) applies to rights of salmon fishing which are exercised by net or cruive and are so exercised regularly throughout the periods during which that method of fishing is allowed by law, and in respect of which no revenue is derived by the owner or occupier thereof from any other method of fishing during any part of those periods; and

(b) does not apply to any dwelling-houses, bothies, net stores, drying greens or other corporeal lands and heritages, whether occupied or used in connection with rights of salmon fishing to which the last foregoing subsection applies or not.

(4) Any dwelling-houses, bothies, net stores, drying greens or other corporeal lands and heritages occupied or used in connection with rights of salmon fishing to which subsection (2) of this section applies shall, for the purpose of making up the valuation roll for the year beginning on the sixteenth day of May, nineteen hundred and fifty-nine and any subsequent year, be treated as lands and heritages which are neither industrial nor agricultural.

(5) Notwithstanding anything in subsections (1) and (2) of section fifteen of the Act of 1956 (which contains transitory provisions for valuation in the years before 1961-2), the assessor for each valuation area, or, as the case may be, the Assessor of Public Undertakings (Scotland), in making up the valuation roll for the year beginning on the sixteenth day of May, nineteen hundred and fifty-nine, and any subsequent year, shall, subject to the provisions of this section, give effect to the changes of rateable values made by the foregoing provisions of this section ; but the said changes shall not require any such assessor by virtue of any provision in the said subsections to make any other alteration in a valuation roll, or entitle any person by virtue of subsection (4) or subsection (5) of the said section fifteen to appeal against, or complain in respect of, any entry in a valuation roll.

(6) Where any such corporeal lands and heritages as are specified in subsection (4) of this section, being lands and heritages occupied or used as so specified, are in any valuation roll in force at the commencement of this Act included in the valuation of the rights of salmon fishing in connection with which they are occupied or used, they shall, notwithstanding anything in this section, be so included in the valuation rolls for the year beginning on the sixteenth day of May, nineteen hundred and fifty-nine and the next following year, and subsection (2) of this section shall for the purposes of those years have effect in relation to them as if they were rights of salmon fishing to which that subsection applies.

(7) Section two hundred and eighteen of the Act of 1947 shall not have effect in relation to the apportionment and allocation between local authorities (as defined for the purposes of that Act), under section two hundred and fourteen of that Act or any other enactment, statutory order or agreement, of expenditure in respect of the year beginning on the sixteenth day of May, nineteen hundred and fifty-nine; and for the purpose of apportioning and allocating any such expenditure between local authorities (defined as aforesaid) under the said section two hundred and fourteen or any other enactment, statutory order or agreement the following provisions of this subsection shall have effect in the said year in any case where, apart from this subsection, the provisions of the said section two hundred and eighteen would apply, that is to say—

(a) the assessor for each valuation area shall estimate what the rateable valuation of each of the areas of the local authorities concerned would have been in the year beginning on the sixteenth day of May, nineteen hundred and fifty-eight, if this section had applied for the purposes of that year ;

(b) the Secretary of State shall estimate what the standard rateable value of each of the said areas would have been for the last mentioned year if this section and sections one, two, four and six of this Act had applied for the purposes of that year ; and

(c) the amounts so estimated shall be deemed to be the rateable valuation and the standard rateable value respectively of the said areas for the purposes specified in this subsection.

(8) The assessor for each valuation area shall, not later than the fifteenth day of February, nineteen hundred and fifty-nine, send to the Secretary of State and to the local authorities concerned copies of the estimates made by him under paragraph (a) of the last foregoing subsection.

(9) For the purpose of the application of this section to any valuation area for which the valuation roll comes into force on a day other than the sixteenth day of May, any reference in this section to the last-mentioned day shall be construed as a reference to that other day.

8 Sittings of valuation appeal committees

The valuation appeal committee for any valuation area may sit in any burgh, being a county of a city, adjoining the valuation area as well as within the valuation area ; and accordingly paragraph (f) of subsection (1) of section five of the Act of 1956 shall have effect with the addition after the words " the valuation area " of the words " or in any burgh, being a county of a city, adjoining that area ", and with the substitution for the words " the burgh " of the words " that burgh ".

9 Valuation for domestic Water rates of lands and heritages of Gas Boards (temporary provisions)

(1) For the purposes of the levying of domestic water rates in respect of the year beginning on the sixteenth day of May, nineteen hundred and fifty-eight, and each of the two next following years (hereinafter referred to as " the years 1958-61 "), every Gas Board shall be treated as occupying during each of the years 1958-61 the lands and heritages in respect of which such a rate was leviable from them in the year beginning on the sixteenth day of May, nineteen hundred and fifty-six, and shall be deemed not to be occupying any other lands and heritages during the years 1958-61.

(2) The gross annual value of each of the lands and heritages which by virtue of the foregoing subsection a Gas Board are to be treated as occupying in any separately rated area shall for the purposes aforesaid be calculated for each of the years 1958-61 as follows, that is to say—

(a) the Assessor of Public Undertakings (Scotland) (herein-after referred to as " the Assessor ") shall calculate the amount which bears to the gross annual value of the lands and heritages in the valuation roll in force on the sixteenth day of May, nineteen hundred and fifty-six, the same proportion as the Board's rateable valuation for the year in question (as ascertained for the purpose of the Fifth Schedule to the Act of 1956) bears to the Board's basic rateable valuation (as defined in paragraph 2 of the said Schedule); and

(b) the amount so calculated shall be the gross annual value of the lands and heritages for the year in question.

(3) The Assessor shall enter all the gross annual values so calculated in the valuation roll made up by him and shall notify them to the rating authorities for the separately rated areas in which the lands and heritages are situated respectively, and to the Gas Boards respectively concerned, before the eighth day of September in the year in question.

(4) Nothing in section twenty-five of the Act of 1956 shall be construed as relieving any Gas Board of any liability under the Water (Scotland) Act, 1949, to be rated for a domestic water rate in respect of any of the years 1958-61.

(5) The powers conferred on the Minister of Power by subsection (6) of section six of the Gas Act, 1948, and by subsection (3) of section twenty-four of that Act (which authorise that Minister, in an order varying the area of a Gas Board, or transferring property between Gas Boards, to provide for certain matters arising out of the variation or transfer) shall include power, by an order made thereunder, to modify the application of this section in the case of any Gas Board affected by the order.

(6) In this section—

(a) references to lands and heritages do not include references to excepted premises;

(b) " domestic water rate" has the same meaning as it has for the purposes of the Water (Scotland) Act, 1949; and

(c) " Gas Board ", " excepted premises " and " separately rated area " have the same meanings as they have for the purposes of section twenty-five of the Act of 1956.

PART III Miscellaneous

10 Expenditure by town councils on halls, etc., for public meetings and assemblies

In section one hundred and ninety-one of the Act of 1947, in subsection (3), paragraph (d) (which limits the net expenditure incurred or payable by town councils on the provision under section seventy-four of the Act of 1947 of halls and other buildings for public meetings and assemblies) shall cease to have effect.

11 Restriction of power of local authorities to borrow

The amendment made by subsection (1) of section four of the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1951, in subsection (2) of section two hundred and fifty-nine of the Act of 1947 (which restricts the power of local authorities to borrow money) shall have permanent effect, and accordingly subsection (2) of the said section four shall cease to have effect.

12 Extension of maximum period for repayment of sums borrowed for certain purposes

(1) The maximum period for the repayment of sums borrowed by a local authority for the purposes of—

(a) the Public Libraries Acts,

(b) the Cremation Act, 1902,

(c) the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act, 1937,

(d) section seventy-four of the Act of 1947 (which relates to the provision of halls, offices and other buildings),

(e) section one hundred and thirty-two of the Local Government Act, 1948 (which relates to the provision of entertainments),

(f) section twenty-one of the National Assistance Act, 1948, or

(g) section fifteen of the Children Act, 1948 (which relates to the provision by local authorities of homes for the accommodation of children in their care),

shall be such period not exceeding sixty years as may be sanctioned by the Secretary of State; and accordingly in the Sixth Schedule to the Act of 1947, in the entries relating to the Public Libraries Acts and to the said Act of 1937, for the words " fifty years " there shall be substituted the words " sixty years ", and in the entry relating to the Cremation Act, 1902, for the words " Twenty years" there shall be substituted the words " Such period not exceeding sixty years as may be sanctioned by the Secretary of State " ; and the following entries shall be added at the end of the said Schedule, that is to say—

“Section seventy-four of the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1947.	Such period not exceeding sixty years as may be sanctioned by the Secretary of State.
Section one hundred and thirty-two of the Local Government Act, 1948.	Such period not exceeding sixty years as may be sanctioned by the Secretary of State.
Section twenty-one of the National Assistance Act, 1948.	Such period not exceeding sixty years as may be sanctioned by the Secretary of State.
Section fifteen of the Children Act, 1948.	Such period not exceeding sixty years as may be sanctioned by the Secretary of State.”

(2) Where a local authority is authorised to borrow money for the purpose of any enactment, any provision (whether in that or another enactment) that any sum so borrowed shall be repaid within a period of fewer than sixty years, or within such period not exceeding fifty-nine or fewer years as the local authority or a Minister may determine, shall be construed as applying only to sums so borrowed for expenditure otherwise than on the acquisition of land; and any sum so borrowed by the local authority for expenditure on the acquisition of land (being a sum to which any such provision as aforesaid would, apart from this subsection, apply) shall be repaid within such period not exceeding sixty years as may be sanctioned by the Secretary of State, or, where the consent of another Minister is required for the borrowing, by that other Minister.

(3) In this section " local authority " and " Minister " have the same meanings as in the Act of 1947, and references to the acquisition of land do not include references to the acquisition, with any land, of buildings or other works thereon, being buildings or other works required to make the land fit for the purpose for which it is acquired.

13 Abolition of certain requirements relating to local government administration

(1) For the purpose of abolishing certain requirements relating to local government administration and for making provision consequential thereon the enactments specified in the Fifth Schedule shall have effect subject to the modifications so specified in relation to them respectively.

(2) This section shall come into operation on the sixteenth day of May, nineteen hundred and fifty-nine.

14 Amendment of Education (Scotland) Act, 1946, s. 7

Subsection (1) of section seven of the Education (Scotland) Act, 1946 (which subsection requires certain functions of education authorities to be exercised in accordance with schemes approved by the Secretary of State) shall have effect as if, in paragraph (a) thereof, after the word " Act ", there were inserted the words " other than such voluntary part-time or full-time courses of instruction for persons over school age as the Secretary of State may direct ".

15 Inspection of minutes of certain authorities

(1) The minutes of—

(a) the proceedings of a local authority,

(b) the proceedings of any committee appointed by a local authority so far as such proceedings relate to any of the authority's functions under the National Health Service (Scotland) Act, 1947, the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act, 1947, or the National Assistance Act, 1948, and

(c) the proceedings of any joint committee or joint board established for the purpose of performing all or any of the functions of two or more local authorities under any of the Acts mentioned in the last foregoing paragraph,

shall be open to the inspection of any local government elector for the area of the local authority, or, in the case of a joint committee or joint board, the area of any of the local authorities represented on the joint committee or joint board, on payment of a fee not exceeding one shilling, and any such local government elector may make a copy, thereof or an extract therefrom.

(2) In this section " local authority " and " local government elector " have the same meanings as in the Act of 1947.

16 Extension of trustees' power to lend money to local authorities

Subsection (1) of section ten of the Trusts (Scotland) Act, 1921 (which relates to trustees' powers of investment) shall have effect as if in heads (6) and (14) thereof—

(a) for any reference to Great Britain there were substituted a reference to the United Kingdom,

(b) any reference to a municipal corporation included, as respects England and Wales, a reference to a local authority as defined in paragraph (a) of subsection (4) of section fifty-four of the Local Government Act, 1958, any body all the members of which are members of such a local authority, any river board, the council of any borough included in a rural district, any parish council, the Metropolitan Water Board, the Conservators of the River Thames and the Lee Conservancy Catchment Board; and, as respects Northern Ireland, a reference to the council of a county, county or other borough, or urban or rural district, any body all the members of which are members of such a council and the Belfast City and District Water Commissioners ; and

(c) any reference to bonds included a reference to local bonds issued under the Housing (Additional Powers) Act, 1919;

as if, in relation to a municipal corporation in Northern Ireland, any reference to an Act of Parliament included a reference to an Act of the Parliament of Northern Ireland; and as if any reference to a local authority in Scotland included a reference to a river purification board established under the Rivers (Prevention of Pollution) (Scotland) Act, 1951.

17 Increase of certain fees payable under enactments relating to marriage and to registration of births, deaths and marriages

The Secretary of State may make regulations, subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament, for increasing the fees payable under any of the following enactments, that is to say—

(a) sections thirty-two and thirty-three of the Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act, 1854 (which relate to the registration of names of children after registration of birth);

(b) sections fifty-six and fifty-seven of the said Act of 1854 (which relate to searches in and extracts from the registers of births, deaths and marriages);

(c) sections eight and nine of the Marriage Notice (Scotland) Act, 1878 (which relate to the publication of notices of intended marriages);

(d) section four of the Registration of Births, Deaths, and Marriages (Scotland) (Amendment) Act, 1934 (which relates to abbreviated certificates of births); and

(e) subsection (3) of section one of the Marriage (Scotland) Act, 1939 (which relates to marriages contracted in the office of a registrar).

PART IV General and Supplementary

18 Transitional adjustments

(1) For the years to which this section applies, contributions shall be made as hereinafter provided to or by local authorities in respect of the loss or gain accruing to them from the coming into operation of sections one, two, four, six and seven of this Act.

(2) For the purposes of this section the loss or gain accruing to a local authority as aforesaid shall be ascertained in accordance with regulations made by the Secretary of State, and such regulations shall provide that it shall be ascertained, on such assumptions as may be specified in the regulations, by reference to the estimated rate required to be levied for the year beginning on the sixteenth day of May, nineteen hundred and fifty-seven, to the estimated rate which would have been required to be levied for that year if sections one, two, four, six and seven of this Act had been in force for that year and the previous year, and to the rateable valuation of the area of the local authority estimated as if the said sections had been in force for those years, but with any exceptions or modifications specified in the regulations.

(3) This section applies to the years beginning on the sixteenth day of May, nineteen hundred and fifty-nine, and the sixteenth day of May, nineteen hundred and sixty, and such subsequent years as may be specified by regulations under this section.

(4) The amount of the contribution to a local authority for the first year to which this section applies shall be the amount of the loss accruing to the authority as ascertained under this section; for the second year to which this section applies shall be nine-tenths of that loss; and for any subsequent year to which this section applies shall be such fraction of that loss as may be provided in relation to that year by regulations under this section.

(5) The amount of the contributions for any year by local authorities shall be such as in the aggregate to equal the amount of the contributions for that year to local authorities, and the amount of the contribution by each local authority shall be proportional to the gain accruing to the authority as ascertained under this section.

(6) Contributions under this section to or by a local authority shall be made by additions to or deductions from the amounts of the general grants which, apart from this section, would be payable to that authority under Part I of this Act.

(7) Contributions under this section made to or by a local authority shall be disregarded in ascertaining the relevant local expenditure for the area of the authority for the purposes of section five of the Act of 1954.

(8) Regulations under this section may contain such provisions as may appear to the Secretary of State necessary or expedient for the purposes of this section in consequence of any changes in the boundaries of the area of a local authority, or the formation of any such area.

(9) Regulations of the Secretary of State under this section may impose on local authorities, joint boards and joint committees requirements to furnish estimates and other information appearing to the Secretary of State necessary for the purposes of this section, including requirements as to the time at which, and form in which, the information is to be furnished. In this subsection " local authority ", " joint board" and " joint committee " have the same meanings as they have for the purposes of the Act of 1947.

(10) Regulations made under this section shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of the Commons House of Parliament.

19 Expenses and receipts

(1) There shall be defrayed out of moneys provided by Parliament—

(a) all sums payable by the Secretary of State under this Act; and

(b) any increase attributable to the provisions of this Act in the sums required or authorised under any other Act to be so defrayed.

(2) Any increase attributable to the provisions of this Act in the receipts of the Registrar-General for Births, Deaths and Marriages in Scotland shall be paid into the Exchequer.

20 Orders and regulations to be made by statutory instrument

Any power conferred by this Act on the Secretary of State to make orders or regulations shall be exercisable by statutory instrument.

21 Interpretation

(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, the following expressions have the meanings hereby assigned to them respectively, that is to say—

• " Act of 1947 " means the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1947;

• " Act of 1954 " means the Local Government (Financial Provisions) (Scotland) Act, 1954 ;

• " Act of 1956 " means the Valuation and Rating (Scotland) Act, 1956;

• " local authority " means a county council or the town council of a burgh, and " area ", in relation to a local authority, means, in the case of a town council, the burgh, and, in the case of a county council, the county exclusive of any burgh situated therein ;

• " relevant expenditure " has the meaning assigned to it by subsection (1) of section one of this Act;

• " year " means a period of twelve months beginning on the sixteenth day of May.

(2) Any provision in this Act containing a reference to the sixteenth day of May shall, in its application to an authority whose financial year begins on a day other than the sixteenth day of May, have effect with the substitution for the said reference of a reference to that other day ; but this subsection shall be without prejudice to subsection (9) of section seven of this Act.

(3) Without prejudice to subsection (7) of section seven of, and paragraph 6 of the Second Schedule to, this Act—

(a) any reference in this Act to the rateable valuation of any area for any year shall be construed as a reference to the total of the rateable values of the lands and heritages in that area as shown in the valuation roll in force on the first day of that year, and

(b) any reference in this Act to the standard rateable value of any area for any year shall be construed as a reference to the standard rateable value of the area for that year as estimated by the Secretary of State for the purposes of the Act of 1954.

(4) Any reference in this Act to any enactment shall, unless the context otherwise requires, be construed as a reference to that enactment as amended, extended or applied by any subsequent enactment, including this Act.

22 Repeals

The enactments specified in the Sixth Schedule to this Act are hereby repealed to the extent specified in the third column of that Schedule:

Provided that the repeals specified in Part II of that Schedule shall not have effect for the purposes of any period before the first day of April, nineteen hundred and fifty-nine; and the repeals specified in Part III of that Schedule shall not have effect for the purposes of any period before the sixteenth day of May nineteen hundred and fifty-nine.

23 Citation and extent

(1) This Act may be cited as the Local Government and Miscellaneous Financial Provisions (Scotland) Act, 1958.

(2) This Act shall extend to Scotland only.