Local Government and Miscellaneous Financial Provisions (Scotland) Act 1958

1 General grants to local authorities

(1) For the year beginning on the sixteenth day of May, nineteen hundred and fifty-nine, and subsequent years the Secretary of State shall make grants to local authorities in accordance with the provisions of this Part of this Act; and those grants (hereinafter referred to as " general grants ") shall be in lieu of the grants paid or payable for those years under any enactment passed before this Act other than the Police (Scotland) Act, 1956, in respect of the expenditure (hereinafter referred to as " relevant expenditure ") specified in the First Schedule to this Act.

(2) Subject to the provisions of the next following section the Secretary of State shall by order, fix the aggregate amount of the general grants payable for the year beginning on the said sixteenth day of May and each subsequent year; and, subject to the provisions of the next following subsection and of sections three and eighteen of this Act, the general grant payable to any local authority for any year shall be such proportion of the aggregate amount so fixed for that year as shall be ascertained in relation to that authority in accordance with the Second Schedule to this Act.

(3) For the purpose of making adjustments in respect of the common expenditure and other matters specified in the Third Schedule to this Act—

(a) the aggregate amount fixed under the last foregoing sub-section for any year shall, before apportionment, be reduced in accordance with the provisions of Part I of that Schedule, and

(b) the general grants payable to local authorities for any year shall be adjusted inter se in accordance with the provisions of Part II of that Schedule.

(4) The general grant payable to any local authority shall be paid at such times as the Secretary of State may with the consent of the Treasury direct, and shall be applied by the authority towards meeting expenditure which, but for the grant, would fell to be defrayed out of the county, or, as the case may be, the burgh, rate as defined in subsection (1) of section two hundred and twenty-four of the Act of 1947.

(5) An order made under subsection (2) of this section (hereinafter referred to as a " general grant order ") shall be made by the Secretary of State with the consent of the Treasury and after consultation with such associations of local authorities as appear to him to fee concerned, shall be laid before the Commons House of Parliament together with a report by the Secretary of State explaining the considerations leading to the provisions of the order and shall not have effect until approved by a resolution of that House.

(6) General grant orders shall be made in advance for successive periods (hereinafter referred to as " grant periods ") of not less than two or more than three years, but any general grant order may make different provision for different years in the grant period to which it relates.