Roads Act 1920

3 Establishment of Road Fund.

(1) There shall be established for the purposes of this Act, in accordance with regulations to be made by the Treasury for the purpose, a fund to be called the Road Fund, and, subject to such regulations as may be made by the Treasury with respect to accounts and investments, the Road Fund shall be subject to the control and management of the Minister.

(2) There shall be transferred or paid to the Road Fund all moneys which on the first day of January, nineteen hundred and twenty-one, are standing to the account of the road improvement grant or are payable to that account, and all investments representing accumulations of money standing to the account of the road improvement grant shall be transferred to such persons as the Treasury may direct, and shall, upon a direction in that behalf being given by the Treasury, by virtue of this Act vest in the persons specified in the direction, and shall, subject to the provisions of any regulations made by the Treasury under the foregoing subsection, be held by those persons for the purposes of the Road Fund.

(3) Any sums received by the Minister under Part II. of the [9 Edw. 7. c. 47.] Development and Road Improvement Funds Act, 1909, shall be paid by the Minister into the Road Fund in such manner as the Treasury may direct.

(4) There shall be paid out of the Road Fund in every year—

(a) to every county council by whom the said duties are levied an amount equal to the expenses properly incurred by that council in accordance with directions issued by the Minister with the approval of the Treasury in or in connection with the levying of the duties, the registration of vehicles, and the issuing of licences to drivers of vehicles, and such directions may provide for advances being made to county councils from time to time as may be necessary during the year on account of any expenses so incurred by them as aforesaid :

(b) to every local or police authority such sum as the Minister, with the approval of the Treasury, may determine to represent the amount which would, if this Act had not been passed, have been received by the authority on account of fees or charges for the licensing of mechanically-propelled hackney carriages :

(c) such part of the expenses incurred by and in connection with the Roads Department of the Ministry of Transport, including the salaries of the staff of that Department as the Minister may from time to time, with the approval of the Treasury, determine to be expenses so incurred in the administration of this Act :

(d) any sums paid by the Minister in respect of the salaries and establishment charges of engineers or surveyors to local authorities under subsection (2) of section seventeen of the [9 & 10 Geo. 5. c. 50.] Ministry of Transport Act, 1919 :

(e) all expenses incurred by any other Government Department in connection with the collection of the said duties or otherwise in the administration of this Act :

and, subject to payment of the sums aforesaid and of any sums to be repaid to a local or police authority out of the Road Fund under any other provision of this Act, the moneys standing to the credit of the Road Fund shall be applied by the Minister for the purposes of Part II of the Development and Road Improvement Funds Act, 1909, as amended by this Act:

Provided that the sums applied out of the Road Fund towards the construction of new roads, or the acquisition of land, or in respect of any loans raised for any such purpose, shall not in any year exceed one-third of the estimated amount to be paid into the Road Fund in that year, after deducting from that amount the estimated amount of the sums to be paid out of the Road Fund under the provisions of this subsection.

(5) The Minister shall cause an account to be prepared and transmitted to the Comptroller and Auditor General for examination on or before the first day of October in every year, showing the receipts into and issues out of the Road Fund in the financial year ending on the thirty-first day of March preceding, and the Comptroller and Auditor General shall certify and report on the same, and the account and report shall be laid before Parliament on or before the thirty-first day of January in the following year if Parliament be then sitting, and if Parliament be not then sitting, within one week after the next meeting of Parliament.

(6) The Minister shall make an annual report to Parliament of his proceedings under this Act and under Part II. of the Development and Road Improvement Funds Act, 1909, as amended by this Act.