Civil Defence Act 1939

38 General grant in respect of expenses in providing shelter for employees.

(1) Where any public utility undertakers who, under the preceding provisions of this Part of this Act, have made, or are under an obligation to make, a report as to the measures which they have taken or are taking or proposing to take to provide air-raid shelter for persons employed by them or have been served with a notice requiring them to take such, measures, have incurred, whether before or after the passing of this Act, expenses of a capital nature in taking measures for that purpose (being measures for the provision of shelter of the approved standard), there shall be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament towards those expenses grants equal to the appropriate proportion of so much of those expenses as the appropriate department considers reasonable:

Provided that—

(a) no grant shall be payable under this section towards the expense of providing any shelter unless either the shelter has been provided before the end of September nineteen hundred and thirty-nine or work on the shelter is then in progress or preparatory measures are then being taken for the provision of the shelter and (in each case) the appropriate department is satisfied that the shelter will be provided within reasonable time thereafter;

(b) no expenses shall be deemed to be reasonable in so far as they exceed such standard as may be prescribed by regulations of the Minister made with the consent of the Treasury unless they were incurred in circumstances so prescribed.

(2) In this section the expression " the appropriate proportion " means an amount in the pound equal to the standard rate of income tax for the year 1939-40.