Local Government (Scotland) Act 1966

18 Rating of certain office premises of nationalised boards.

(1) For the year 1967-68 and subsequent years, an authority to which this section applies shall, notwithstanding anything in Part V of the [1948 c. 26.] Local Government Act 1948, section 24(2) of the [1956 c. 60.] Valuation and Rating (Scotland) Act 1956 or section 3(1) of the [1965 c. 36.] Gas Act 1965, be liable to be rated in respect of any office premises occupied by the authority which are not situated on operational land of the authority; and accordingly any such premises shall be included in the valuation roll for the area in which they are situated.

(2) In determining the value of any office premises which are to be rated by virtue of subsection (1) of this section, any part of the premises which is not used as an office or for office purposes, or for purposes ancillary to the use of the premises as an office or for office purposes, shall be disregarded.

(3) The assessor for the area in which office premises occupied by an authority to which this section applies are situated or the occupier of those premises may apply to the appropriate Minister for a determination of the question whether the premises are situated on operational land of the authority, and if the Minister determines that the premises are not so situated the occupier thereof shall be liable to be rated in respect of the premises from the date of that determination.

(4) For the purposes of the last foregoing subsection the appropriate Minister in relation to premises occupied by—

(a) the British Railways Board or the British Waterways Board, is the Minister of Transport;

(b) the Gas Council or any area board constituted for an area in Scotland under the [1948 c. 67.] Gas Act 1948, is the Minister of Power; and

(c) any other board, is the Secretary of State.

(5) This section applies to the following authorities, that is to say, the British Railways Board, the British Waterways Board, the Gas Council, any area board constituted for an area in Scotland under the Gas Act 1948, the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board and the South of Scotland Electricity Board.

(6) In this section—

• " office premises " means lands and heritages which are used wholly or mainly as an office or for office purposes; and

• " operational land ", in relation to an authority to which this section applies, means land which is used for the purpose of the carrying on of the authority's undertaking, not being land which, in respect of its nature and situation, is comparable rather with land in general than with land which is used for the purpose of the carrying on of statutory undertakings ;

and for the purposes of this subsection " office purposes " includes the purposes of administration, clerical work and handling money, "clerical work" includes writing, bookkeeping, sorting papers, filing, typing, duplicating, punching cards or tapes, machine calculating, drawing and the editorial preparation of matter for publication, and " statutory undertakings" has the same meaning as in the [1947 c. 53.] Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1947.