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Fire Services Act 1947

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36 Application to Scotland.E+W+S

(1)The provisions of this section shall have effect for the purpose of the application of this Act to Scotland.

(2)For any reference to the Minister of Health there shall be substituted a reference to the Secretary of State; . . . F1; for any reference to a combination scheme there shall be substituted a reference to an administration scheme; for any reference to statutory water undertakers there shall be substituted a reference to a [F2water authority]within the meaning of the Water (Scotland) Act [F21980]; for references to the M1Water Act 1945, and to sections thirty-two to thirty-four [F3and thirty-six] of the Third Schedule thereto there shall be respectively substituted references to the Water (Scotland) Act [F21980], and to sections nineteen to twenty-one and [F3twenty-three] of the [F2Schedule 4]thereto; for any reference to the M2Acquisition of Land (Authorisation Procedure) Act 1946, there shall be substituted a reference to the M3Acquisition of Land (Authorisation Procedure) (Scotland) Act 1947; for any reference, in relation to a fire brigade, to the chief officer, there shall be substituted a reference to the firemaster; and any reference to a fire authority shall, unless the context otherwise requires, be construed as including a reference to a joint committee constituted in pursuance of the provisions hereinafter contained.

[F4(3)It shall be the duty of the councils of the regions and islands areas comprised in either of the combined areas set out in the Table at the end of this subsection to prepare and submit to the Secretary of State, not later than 1st January 1975 or such later date as the Secretary of State may in special circumstances allow, a scheme (hereafter referred to as an ”administration scheme’) for the provision in the combined area of the services required by section 1 of this Act, and the Secretary of State may by order approve any scheme so submitted to him.

Table

Combined areaRegions and islands areas comprised
South-easternBorders and Lothian.
NorthernHighland and the Islands Areas.]

(4)An administration scheme shall make provision with regard to the following matters:—

(a)the establishment of a combined fire brigade for the area, and the appointment, subject to the provisions of this Act and of any regulations thereunder, of a firemaster of that brigade;

(b)the constitution for the administration of the combined fire brigade of a joint committee consisting of such number of members, being members of the fire authorities in the area, as may be specified in the scheme;

(c)the transfer to the joint committee of the functions of the fire authorities (except the power to levy a rate and such other functions as may be specified in the administration scheme);

(d)the payment out of a fund constituted in accordance with the scheme of the expenses incurred by the joint committee in the administration of the combined fire brigade;

(e)the payment into the aforesaid fund of contributions by the fire authorities in such proportions as may be determined by or under the scheme.

(5)An administration scheme may contain provision regarding—

(a)the furnishing, on such terms and conditions as may be specified in the scheme, by one of the fire authorities of any service connected with the administration of the combined fire brigade;

(b)the transfer to the joint committee of property, rights or liabilities;

(c)the appointment of officers by the joint committee and the transfer to the joint committee of officers of any of the fire authorities;

(d)the settlement of differences between the fire authorities; and

(e)any other matters incidental to or consequential on any provision contained in the scheme.

(6)[F5If the councils of the regions and islands areas comprised in one of the combined areas set out in the Table at the end of subsection (3) of this section fail to submit within the time limited by that subsection] an administration scheme for that area satisfactory to the Secretary of State, he may by order make a scheme therefor and the foregoing provisions of this section shall apply to any such scheme as they apply to schemes made under those provisions:

Provided that before making any such scheme the Secretary of State shall give to the councils concerned notice of the general nature of the proposed scheme, and unless those councils intimate their assent thereto, the Secretary of State shall publish in one or more newspapers circulating in the areas of the councils a notice of the general nature of the scheme, and shall cause a public local inquiry to be held by a person appointed by him, not being an officer of a fire authority or of any Government department.

(7)An administration scheme made under subsection (3) or subsection (6) of this section may be amended or revoked by a subsequent scheme made under either of those subsections and the provisions of those subsections shall apply to any such amending or revoking scheme subject to any necessary modifications.

(8)The Secretary of State may by order vary [F6any area or combined area] and any such order may make provision with respect to any of the following matters—

(a)the making of a new administration or establishment scheme or such modification of an existing administration or establishment scheme relating to any area affected by the order as seems to the Secretary of State to be necessary;

(b)the transfer or retransfer to such fire brigade as may be determined by the order of the members of any fire brigade affected thereby;

(c)the transfer or retransfer to such fire authorities as may be determined by the order of any officers, property, rights or liabilities of any fire authority affected thereby;

(d)the payment, by such fire authority and subject to such provisions as may be determined by the order, of compensation to officers employed by any fire authority affected by the order who in consequence thereof or of anything done thereunder suffer direct pecuniary loss by reason of the determination of their appointments or the diminution of their emoluments;

(e)in the case of any person who having immediately before the coming into operation of the order been the firemaster of any fire brigade affected by the order does not on the coming into operation of the order become the firemaster of any fire brigade established in consequence of the order, for the payment, in lieu of compensation under the last foregoing paragraph, of a pension, gratuity or allowance of such amount subject to such conditions and by such fire authority as may be provided by the order; and

(f)any other matters incidental to or consequential on any provision contained in the order:

Provided that—

(i)

unless the councils of the [F7regions and islands areas] affected by any proposed order under this subsection assent to the making thereof, the Secretary of State shall publish in one or more newspapers circulating in the [F7regions and islands areas] so affected a notice of the purport of the proposed order, and shall cause a public local inquiry to be held; and

(ii)

the Secretary of State shall lay before each House of Parliament a draft of any proposed order under this subsection and where an inquiry has been held with respect thereto shall lay together with the draft a copy of the report of the person by whom the inquiry was held; and if either House within the period of forty days beginning with the day on which the draft order is laid before it resolves that the order be not made, no further proceedings shall be taken thereon, but without prejudice to the laying before Parliament of a new draft order.

In reckoning any such period of forty days, no account shall be taken of any time during which Parliament is dissolved or prorogued or during which both Houses are adjourned for more than four days.

(9)The Secretary of State may after consultation with the fire authorities concerned by order provide for the incorporation of a joint committee with a common seal and for conferring on such a committee power to hold land or to borrow money.

(10)A fire authority and a joint committee which has power to borrow money by virtue of an order made under subsection (9) of this section may, subject to the provisions of [F8section sixteen of, and Schedule 3 to, the M4Local Government (Scotland) Act 1975], borrow such sums as may be required for the purposes of their functions under this Act to meet expenditure of a capital nature or the cost of executing any work, or providing any plant or equipment or doing any other thing where, having regard to the nature of the work, plant, equipment or thing, the cost ought to be spread over a period of years:

Provided that nothing in this subsection shall authorise the exercise of the power of borrowing money thereby conferred otherwise than in compliance with the provisions of the M5Local Authorities Loans Act 1945, . . . F9 and of any orders for the time being in force made by the Treasury under section one of the M6Borrowing (Control and Guarantees) Act 1946.

(11)A joint committee which has power to borrow money by virtue of an order under subsection (9) of this section shall, for the purposes of the M7Local Authorities Loans Act 1945, be deemed to be a local authority.

(12). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F10

(13)[F11For the purposes of the Local Government Superannuation (Scotland) Regulations 1974], the appropriate superannuation fund in relation to the [F11pensionable employees] of a joint committee shall be the superannuation fund of such one of the councils of the [F7regions and islands areas] comprised in the area of the joint committee as may be determined by or under the administration scheme.

(14)Section one of this Act shall have effect as if for subsection (2) thereof the following subsection were substituted:—

(2)(a)Any member of a fire brigade maintained in pursuance of this Act authorised in writing by the authority maintaining the fire brigade shall, on producing, if so required, some duly authenticated document showing his authority, have a right to enter any premises at all reasonable hours for the purpose of obtaining such information as is mentioned in paragraph (d) of the last foregoing subsection:

Provided that admission to any premises in which persons are employed otherwise than in domestic service, shall not be demanded as of right unless twenty-four hours’ notice of the intended entry has been given to the occupier.

(b)If it is shown to the satisfaction of a sheriff or a justice of the peace—

(i)that admission to any premises has been refused, or that refusal is apprehended, or that the premises are unoccupied or the occupier is temporarily absent, or that the case is one of urgency, or that an application for admission would defeat the object of entry; and

(ii)that there is reasonable ground for entry into the premises for any such purpose as aforesaid,

the sheriff or justice may by warrant under his hand authorise the authority maintaining the fire brigade by any member thereof authorised as aforesaid to enter the premises, if need be by force:

Provided that such a warrant shall not be issued unless the sheriff or justice is satisfied either that notice of the intention to apply for a warrant has been given to the occupier, or that the premises are unoccupied, or that the occupier is temporarily absent, or that the case is one of urgency, or that the giving of such notice would defeat the object of the entry.

(c)A member of a fire brigade authorised as aforesaid entering any premises by virtue of this subsection, or of a warrant issued thereunder, may take with him such other persons as may be necessary, and on leaving any unoccupied premises which he has entered by virtue of such a warrant shall leave them as effectually secured against trespassers as he found them.

(d)Every warrant granted under this subsection shall continue in force until the purpose for which the entry is necessary has been satisfied.

(e)If any person who in compliance with the provisions of this subsection or of a warrant issued thereunder is admitted into any premises discloses to any person any information obtained by him therein with regard to any manufacturing process or trade secret, he shall, unless such disclosure was made in the performance of his duty, be liable to a fine not exceeding [F12level 3 on the standard scale] or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months.

(f)A person who wilfully obstructs any person acting in the execution of this subsection or of any warrant issued thereunder shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding [F13level 1 on the standard scale] and to a further fine not exceeding five pounds for each day on which the offence continues after conviction thereof.

(15)For section four of this Act there shall be substituted the following section—

[F14Subject to the provisions of this Act, as from 16th May 1975, the fire authority shall be a regional or islands council], and the Fire Brigades Act 1938, and any other enactment passed before the commencement of this Act in so far as it confers functions for fire fighting purposes on any council other than as aforesaid shall cease to have effect:

Provided that nothing in this section shall affect any functions relating to fire prevention, restricting the spread of fires, or means of escape in case of fire, being functions conferred on a council otherwise than as an authority maintaining a fire brigade.

(16)Section eleven of this Act shall have effect as if for references to such a local authority and such a fire authority as are therein mentioned there were respectively substituted references to the council of a [F7regions or islands area] comprised in any area for which a joint committee is appointed and to that joint committee.

[F15(16A)In section 19—

(a)for subsection (3) there shall be substituted the following subsection—

(3)Every fire authority shall, on such dates as the Secretary of State may by regulations prescribe, notify him of the establishment scheme in force in their area on such dates as he may so prescribe.; and

(b)after subsection (8) there shall be inserted—

(8A) Regulations made under subsection (3) above shall be made by statutory instrument; and such an instrument shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.]

(17). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F16

(18)There shall be appointed a separate Central Fire Brigades Advisory Council for Scotland to be called the Scottish Central Fire Brigades Advisory Council, and the provisions of this Act with regard to the Central Fire Brigades Advisory Council shall apply to the said Scottish Council.

[F17(19) Any inquiry which the Secretary of State is under this Act required or authorised to hold shall be held in public, and the provisions of subsections (3) to [F18(8) of section 210 of the M8Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973], shall have effect in relation thereto.]

(20)A fire authority and a joint committee which has power to hold land by virtue of an order under subsection (9) of this section, may, with the consent of the Secretary of State, sell or otherwise dispose of any land vested in them and no longer required by them.

(22)The following provisions of this Act—

(a)sections five to ten,

(b)subsection (4) and, (so far as it defines the expression “statutory water undertakers”), subsection (7) of section fourteen,

(c). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F19

(d)subsection (2) of section thirty-three,

(e). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F19

shall not apply to Scotland.

Textual Amendments

F5Words substituted by Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c. 65), s. 147(5)(c); and that substitutuion was continued by S.I 1995/702, art. 7

F6Words substituted by Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c. 65), s. 147(5)(d); and that substitution was continued by S.I. 1995/702, art. 7

F7Words substituted by Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c. 65), s. 147(5)(a); and that substitution was continued by S.I. 1995/702, art. 7

F14Words substituted by Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c. 65), s. 147(5)(e); and that substitution was continued by S.I. 1995/702, art. 7

F18Words substituted by Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c. 65), s. 147(5)(f); and that substitution was continued by S.I. 1995/702, art. 7

F19S. 36(22)(c)(e) and word “and” preceding para. (e) repealed by Fire Services Act 1959 (c. 44), Sch.

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1References to Secretary of State substituted in ss. 3(5), 14(1), Sch. 5 para. 9(3) for references (as originally enacted) to Minister of Health

Marginal Citations

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