Local Government Act 1888

24 Payments by county council in substitution for annual local grants out of Exchequer in aid of local rates.

Whereas certain grants heretofore made- out of the Exchequer in aid of local rates (in this Act referred to as local grants) will by reason of the duties on the local taxation licences land the probate duty grant being by this Act made payable to local authorities, cease, it is therefore hereby enacted as follows:—

(1) So much of any enactment as requires or authorises payment out of the Exchequer of any local grant in substitution for which the county council is required by this Act to make any payment is hereby repealed as from the thirty-first day of March next after the passing of this Act without prejudice to any right accrued before that day.

(2) In substitution for local grants, the council of each county shall from time to time as from the said day pay out of. the county fund and charge to the Exchequer Contribution Account the following sums, that is to say—

(a) they shall pay to the guardians for every poor law union or officer for any other area wholly or partly in the county (as the case may be) such sums as the Local Government. Board from time to time certify to be due from the said council in substitution for the local grants towards the remuneration of teachers in poor law schools, and for payments to public vaccinators under section five of the [30 & 31 Vict. c. 84.] Vaccination Act, 1867; and

(b) they shall pay to the guardians of every poor law union the school fees paid for pauper children sent from a workhouse to a public elementary school outside the workhouse; and

(c) they shall pay to every local authority, for any area wholly or partly in the county, by whom a medical officer of health or inspector of nuisances is paid, one half of the salary of such officer, where his qualification, appointment, salary, and tenure of office are in accordance with the regulations made by order under the [38 & 39 Vict. c. 55.] Public Health Act, 1875, or any Act repealed by that Act, but if the Local Government Board certify to the council that such medical officer has failed to send to the Local Government Board such report and returns as are for the time being required by the regulations respecting the duties of such officer made by order of the Board under any of the said Acts, a sum equal to such half of the salary shall be forfeited to the Crown, and the council shall pay the same into Her Majesty's Exchequer and not to the said local authority; and

(d) they shall pay to the guardians paying the registrars of births and deaths for any district wholly or partly in the county a sum equal to the amount paid out of local grants towards the remuneration of the registrars paid by those guardians during the financial year ending on the thirty-first day of March next after the passing of this Act; and

(e) they shall transfer to that account of the county fund to which the maintenance of any pauper lunatic chargeable to the county is charged, a sum equal to four shillings a week for each such pauper lunatic, for whom the net charge upon the county council, after deducting any amount received by the county council for the maintenance of such lunatic from any source other than local rates, is equal to or exceeds four shillings a week throughout, the period of maintenance for which the sum is so transferred ; and

(f) they shall pay to the guardians of every poor law union wholly or partly in the county a sum equal to four shillings a week for each pauper lunatic chargeable to that union, and maintained in an asylum, registered hospital, or licensed house, for whom the net charge upon the guardians, after deducting any amount received by them for the maintenance of such lunatic from any source other than local rates, is equal to or exceeds four shillings a week throughout the period of maintenance for which the sum is so paid ; and

(g) they shall pay to the council of each borough to which the maintenance of any pauper lunatic is chargeable, a sum equal to four shillings a week for each such pauper lunatic for whom the net charge upon the council of the borough, after deducting any amount received by them for the maintenance of such lunatic from any source other than local rates, is equal to or exceeds four shillings a week throughout the period of maintenance for which the sum is so paid; and

(h) they shall transfer to that account of the county fund to which the compensation payable to the clerk of the peace of a county, or any other officer of quarter sessions for the county, under section eighteen of the Act of the session of the eighteenth and nineteenth years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter one hundred and twenty-six is charged, the amount of such compensation ; and

(i) they shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, transfer to the police account of the county fund a sum equal to one half of the costs of the pay and clothing of the police of the county during the preceding year; and

(j) they shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, pay to the council of each borough maintaining a, separate police force under the County and Borough Police Acts, one half of the costs of the pay and clothing of the police of that borough during the preceding year; and

(k) they shall, if within their county sums are raised by rates for the purpose of the metropolitan police, pay to the receiver for the metropolitan police district in. each year, a sum bearing such proportion to the sum actually raised in the same year by rates from the parishes in that county for the said purpose as a Secretary of State certifies to be the proportion which would have been contributed out of the Exchequer under the arrangement in force during the financial year next before the passing of this Act.

(3) A reference in sections One hundred and- eighty-nine and one hundred and ninety-one of the Public Health Act, 1875, to officers any portion of whose salary is paid out of moneys provided by Parliament shall be construed to refer to those officers in respect of whose salaries payment is wade by a county council in pursuance of this section.

(4) Where any payment towards the pay and clothing of the police of any town has been made in pursuance of section eighteen of the [19 & 20 Vict. c. 69.] County and Borough Police Act, 1856, which authorises such payment to be made until the discontinuance of the police, the like payment shall, notwithstanding anything in this section, be made by the county council to the authority of such town until such discontinuance.

(5) Where a sum is payable under this section to the guardians, authority, or officer of a union or other area, and such union or area is situate in more administrative counties than one, a proportionate part only of the sum otherwise payable shall be paid by the council of each of such counties to the guardians, authority, or officer, and the Local Government Board shall certify the proportionate part due from the council of each such county.

(6) The guardians, authority, or officer to whom a sum is payable under this section on the certificate of the Local Government Board, shall submit to the Board their claim to the payment in such manner, and produce such evidence and comply with such rules as the Board from time to time require or make, and the Board shall fix the amount due on the like principles, and may impose the like conditions for the payment thereof as before the passing of this Act.

(7) The Local Government Board may, if they think fit, vary a certificate granted for the purposes of this section, but, unless so varied, it shall be conclusive.