Agricultural Land (Utilisation) Act 1931

22 Financial provisions

(1) The Treasury may, subject to such conditions as they may determine, issue out of the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom or the growing produce thereof—

(a) such sums as may be required by the Minister for the purchase of land acquired by him under sections one and two of this Act and for such other expenses under those sections as may be agreed by the Treasury and the Minister to be capital expenditure not exceeding, unless and until Parliament otherwise determines, five million pounds;

(b) such sums as may be required by the Department of Agriculture for Scotland for the purchase of land acquired by them under sections one and two of this Act and for such other expenses under those sections as may be agreed by the Treasury and the said Department to be capital expenditure not exceeding, unless and until Parliament otherwise determines, seven hundred thousand pounds;

(c) such sums as may be required by the Minister for the purchase of land or the erection of buildings for the provision of small holdings and for such other expenses in connection with the provision of small holdings as may be agreed by the Treasury and the Minister to be capital expenditure;

(d) such sums as may be required by the Department of Agriculture for Scotland for the purchase of land or the erection of buildings for the provision of holdings for unemployed persons and for such other expenses in connection with such provision as may be agreed by the Treasury and the said Department to be capital expenditure.

(2) The Treasury, may if they think fit, for the purpose of providing money for sums so authorised to be issued out of the Consolidated Fund, or for repaying to that fund all or any part of the sums so issued, borrow by means of terminable annuities for a term not exceeding twenty years, and all sums so borrowed shall be paid into the Exchequer.

(3) The said annuities shall, to such extent as the Treasury may direct, be defrayed out of the Small Holdings and Allotments Account or the Agriculture (Scotland) Fund as the case may be, and in so far as not so defrayed, shall be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament for the service of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, or for the service of the Department of Agriculture for Scotland, as the case may be, and if those moneys are insufficient shall be charged on and paid out of the Consolidated Fund, or the growing produce thereof.

(4) All sums received by the Minister in the exercise and performance of his powers and duties under the provisions of this Act relating to small holdings, other than demonstration holdings, and to allotments shall be paid into the Small Holdings and Allotments Account, and all expenditure so incurred by him shall be defrayed out of that account; and all sums received by the Department of Agriculture for Scotland in the exercise and performance of their powers and duties under this Act shall be paid into the Agriculture (Scotland) Fund, constituted under section five of the [1 & 2 Geo. 5. c. 49.] Small Landholders (Scotland) Act, 1911, and all expenditure so incurred by the Department shall be defrayed out of that fund.

(5) Any deficiency in the Small Holdings and Allotments Account or in the Agriculture (Scotland) Fund arising by reason of the last foregoing subsection, and any expenses incurred by the Minister, or by the Department of Agriculture for Scotland, or by the Minister of Labour, in the exercise and performance of their powers and duties under this Act, not provided for under the foregoing provisions of this section, shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Treasury, be defrayed out of moneys provided by Parliament.

(6) Any sums received by the Minister, the Department of Agriculture for Scotland, or the Treasury by reason of the exercise of powers in respect of which the Treasury have borrowed moneys under this section shall, so far as they are of a capital nature, be applied in repayment of the moneys so borrowed.