Local Government (Financial Provisions) Act 1963

1 Extension of local authority powers to pay expenses incurred in attending conferences and meetings

(1) Section 267 of the Act of 1933 and section 161 of the Act of 1939 (by which a local authority are enabled to pay expenses incurred by members of the authority or a committee thereof in attending a conference or meeting convened by one or more local authorities or an association of local authorities for the discussion of matters connected with the discharge of the functions of the authority) shall have effect as if the references to a conference or meeting included references to—

(a) a conference or meeting convened by any person or body (other than a person or body convening it in the course of his or their trade or business or a body of which the objects are wholly or partly political) for the purpose of discussing matters relating to the discharge of the functions of the local authority or to the development of trade, industry or commerce in the area of the local authority;

(b) a conference or meeting convened by any government department or local authority, or by any other body exercising functions conferred by or under any enactment or Royal Charter, being a conference or meeting convened for the purpose of discussing any matter affecting the area of the local authority or its inhabitants.

(2) In the foregoing subsection "the local authority " means the local authority whose powers under the said section 267 or 161 are in question.

(3) For the purposes of the said sections 267 and 161 a loss of earnings necessarily suffered by a member of a local authority or a committee of a local authority for the purpose of enabling him to attend a conference or meeting, being earnings which he would otherwise have made, shall be treated as an expense incurred by him in attending that conference or meeting.

(4) Section 114 of the Act of 1948 (which determines the bodies by whom allowances payable under Part VI of that Act are to be paid, and provides, among other things, that a power of such a body, otherwise than under the said Part VI, to defray expenses, other than expenses on account of travelling, incurred by a person in respect of which he is entitled to an allowance under that Part, shall not be so exercised as to defray those expenses otherwise than in accordance with the provisions of that Part) shall be amended by the omission of subsection (2) and of the words " (other than expenses on account of travelling) " in subsection (3); and the said subsection (3) shall have effect as if any reference therein to expenses incurred included a reference to any loss of earnings suffered which, by virtue of the last foregoing subsection, is to be treated as an expense incurred and, in relation to the powers to defray expenses conferred by subsection (1) of this section, as if any such conference or meeting as aforesaid were included in paragraph (c) of the definition of "approved duty" in section 115 of the Act of 1948.