The council of a district F1the council of a principal area in Wales and the council of a London borough may make byelaws for the good rule and government of the whole or any part of the district F2principal area or borough, as the case may be, and for the prevention and suppression of nuisances therein.

The confirming authority in relation to byelaws made under this section shall be the Secretary of State.

Byelaws shall not be made under this section for any purpose as respects any area if provision for that purpose as respects that area is made by, or is or may be made under, any other enactment.

Subject to subsection (2) below, the following provisions of this section shall apply to byelaws to be made by a local authority under this Act F3and to byelaws made by a local authority, F4the Greater London AuthorityF5, Transport for LondonF6, an Integrated Transport Authority for an integrated transport area in England or a combined authority under any other enactment and conferring on the authority a power to make byelaws and for which specific provision is not otherwise made.

F10Subject to subsection (3A) below, the byelaws shall be made under the common seal of the authority, or, in the case of byelaws made by a parish or community council not having a seal, under the hands and seals of two members of the council, and shall not have effect until they are confirmed by the confirming authority.

Byelaws made by the Greater London Authority shall be made under the hand of the Mayor and shall not have effect until they are confirmed by the confirming authority.

At least one month before application for confirmation of the byelaws is made, notice of the intention to apply for confirmation shall be given in one or more local newspapers circulating in the area to which the byelaws are to apply.

For at least one month before application for confirmation is made, a copy of the byelaws shall be deposited at the offices of the authority by whom the byelaws are made, and shall at all reasonable hours be open to public inspection without payment.

The authority by whom the byelaws are made shall, on application, furnish to any person a copy of the byelaws, or of any part thereof, on payment of such sum, not exceeding 10p for every hundred words contained in the copy, as the authority may determine.

The confirming authority may confirm, or refuse to confirm, any byelaw submitted under this section for confirmation, and may fix the date on which the byelaw is to come into operation and if no date is so fixed the byelaw shall come into operation at the expiration of one month from the date of its confirmation.

A copy of the byelaws, when confirmed, shall be printed and deposited at the offices of the authority by whom the byelaws are made, and shall at all reasonable hours be open to public inspection without payment, and a copy thereof shall, on application, be furnished to any person on payment of such sum, not exceeding 20p for every copy, as the authority may determine.

The proper officer of a district council F12or in Wales of a principal councilshall send a copy of every byelaw made by the council, and confirmed, to the proper officer of the council, whether separate or common, of every parish or community to which they apply or, in the case of a parish not having a council, to the chairman of the parish meeting, and the proper officer of the parish or community council or chairman of the parish meeting, as the case may be, shall cause a copy to be deposited with the public documents of the parish or community.

A copy so deposited shall at all reasonable hours be open to public inspection without payment.

The proper officer of a county council shall send a copy of every byelaw made by the council, and confirmed, to the council of every district in the county, and the proper officer of the council of a district shall send a copy of every byelaw made by the council, and confirmed, to the council of the county.

Subsection (10) above does not apply to a principal council in Wales.

The Greater London Authority shall send a copy of every byelaw made by the Authority, and confirmed, to each London borough council and the Common Council.

In this section the expression “the confirming authority” means the authority or person, if any, specified in the enactment (including any enactment in this Act) under which the byelaws are made, or in any enactment incorporated therein or applied thereby, as the authority or person by whom the byelaws are to be confirmed, or if no authority or person is so specified means the Secretary of State.

Regulations may not be made under subsection (1) unless a draft of the instrument containing the regulations has been laid before, and approved by a resolution of, each House of Parliament.

Such an authority may make a byelaw under this section to revoke a byelaw made by the authority.

The power under subsection (2) may be exercised only where the authority has no other power to revoke the byelaw.

The Secretary of State may, in relation to England, by order revoke any byelaw which appears to him to have become spent, obsolete or unnecessary.

The Welsh Ministers may, in relation to Wales, by order revoke any byelaw which appears to them to have become spent, obsolete or unnecessary.

A statutory instrument containing an order under this section which amends or repeals any provision of an Act may not be made by the Secretary of State unless a draft of the instrument containing the order has been laid before, and approved by a resolution of, each House of Parliament.

Otherwise, a statutory instrument containing an order made by the Secretary of State under this section shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

A statutory instrument containing an order under this section which amends or repeals any provision of an Act may not be made by the Welsh Ministers unless a draft of the instrument containing the order has been laid before, and approved by a resolution of, the National Assembly for Wales.

Otherwise, a statutory instrument containing an order made by the Welsh Ministers under this section shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of the National Assembly for Wales.

The Secretary of State may, in relation to England, by regulations prescribe classes of byelaws to which this section applies.

A fixed penalty notice under this section is payable to the authority whose officer gave the notice.

A notice under this section must give such particulars of the circumstances alleged to constitute the offence as are necessary for giving reasonable information about the offence.

Without prejudice to payment by any other method, payment of the fixed penalty may be made by pre-paying and posting a letter containing the amount of the penalty (in cash or otherwise) to the person mentioned in subsection (7)(c) at the address so mentioned.

Where a letter is sent in accordance with subsection (8) payment is to be regarded as having been made at the time at which that letter would be delivered in the ordinary course of post.

The form of a notice under this section may be specified in regulations under subsection (1).

In this section—

• “authorised officer”, in relation to an authority, means—

  1. a

     an employee of the authority who is authorised in writing by the authority for the purpose of giving notices under this section,

  2. b

     any person who, in pursuance of arrangements made with the authority, has the function of giving such notices and is authorised in writing by the authority to perform the function, and

  3. c

     any employee of such a person who is authorised in writing by the authority for the purpose of giving such notices,

• “chief finance officer”, in relation to an authority, means the person having responsibility for the financial affairs of the authority.

Regulations under subsection (1) may prescribe conditions to be satisfied by a person before a parish council may authorise him in writing for the purpose of giving notices under this section.

An authority may specify different amounts in relation to different byelaws.

The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision in connection with the powers under subsections (1)(a) and (2).

The Secretary of State may by order substitute a different amount for the amount for the time being specified in subsection (1)(b).

If an authorised officer proposes to give a person a notice under section 237A, the officer may require the person to give him his name and address.

A person guilty of an offence under subsection (2) is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.

In this section, “authorised officer” has the same meaning as in section 237A.

“Fixed penalty receipts” means amounts paid to an authority in pursuance of notices under section 237A.

The authority shall have regard to the desirability of using its fixed penalty receipts for the purpose of combating any relevant nuisance.

A “relevant nuisance” is a nuisance in the authority's area for the prevention of which any byelaw to which section 237A applies was made.

Otherwise, a statutory instrument containing regulations under section 237A or 237B, or an order under section 237B, shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.