Commentary on Clauses
5.This Act substitutes section 3 of the 1948 Act in so far as it applies to authorities in England and Wales.
6.New section 3(1) confers a grant making function on the designated Minister, the First Secretary of State.
7.New section 3(2) requires the designated Minister to determine how much civil defence grant will be made available to each authority which has civil defence functions. (These functions are conferred by regulations made under section 2 of the 1948 Act.) The designated Minister is required to publish the amount of grant paid to each authority, the aggregate of all grants, and the criteria by which these amounts have been determined.
8.New section 3(3) allows the designated Minister to use different criteria in relation to different authorities, and to vary individual determinations.
9.New section 3A gives the designated Minister an additional power to pay a discretionary grant to any authority with civil defence functions under section 2 of the 1948 Act.
10.Under new section 3B, the designated Minister will determine when grant is paid and whether any conditions should be applied to the payment of that grant. New section 3B also provides for the recovery of any over-payment of grant.
11.This Act also makes a consequential amendment in that it removes the reference in section 2(3) of the Civil Protection in Peacetime Act 1986 to regulations and replaces it with reference to the new sections 3 and 3A of the 1948 Act.