Funding
Section 957: Fees and charges
1215.This section enables the Panel to make rules for the payment of fees or charges to the Panel for the purposes of meeting the Panel’s expenses incurred in exercising its functions. Such fees and charges may be imposed to meet expenses of the Takeover Appeal Board; the cost of repaying capital and paying interest on loans; and the cost of maintaining adequate reserves. The rules under this section must be made by the Panel itself or by a committee of the Panel (section 943(4)).
Section 958: Levy
1216.This section gives the Secretary of State the power to make regulations imposing a levy for meeting the costs of the Panel. In determining the appropriate rate of the levy, the Secretary of State must take account of other income received, or expected to be received, by the Panel (which would include fees and charges under section 957) and may take account of estimated as well as actual costs of the Panel.
1217.It is anticipated that a levy would only be imposed if the existing voluntary levy funding arrangements (contributions collected by member firms of the London Stock Exchange and Ofex currently set at a flat rate charge of £1 on contract notes on all chargeable transactions with a consideration in excess of £10,000) were no longer viable. The categories of persons or bodies to which the levy would apply may include only those capable of being directly affected by the exercise of the Panel’s functions or otherwise having a substantial interest in the exercise of those functions.
1218.The first regulations made in respect of the levy power – and any further regulations which change the persons or bodies by whom, or the transactions on which, the levy is payable – will be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure in both Houses of Parliament. A draft of an instrument containing such regulations will not be treated as being hybrid even if otherwise it would be. Any other subsequent regulations will be subject to the negative resolution procedure.
Section 959: Recovery of fees, charges or levy
1219.This section provides that an amount payable by a person as a consequence of fees and charges imposed by the Panel under section 957 or as a result of any levy fixed by the Secretary of State under section 958 will constitute a debt owed by that person to the Panel and be recoverable by the Panel as a debt.
