Coal Industry Act 1973

4 Extension of power to make redundancy payment schemes

In section 3 of the Act of 1967 (which as amended by the Act of 1971 enables the Secretary of State to make schemes providing for payments to persons becoming redundant before 31st March 1974) there shall be made the following amendments :—

(a) in subsection (1), after the words “making of payments to ” there shall be inserted the words “or in respect of ” and for the words “31st March 1974” there shall be substituted the words “28th March 1976 or, if the Secretary of State by order so directs, 26th March 1978 ” ;

(b) after subsection (1) there shall be inserted the following subsections—

“(1A) The payments to be made under a scheme under this section shall be either—

(a) payments by the Secretary of State to persons to whom the scheme applies in accordance with subsection (1) of this section, or

(b) payments by the Secretary of State to the Board in respect of the carrying out by the Board of arrangements relating to concessionary coal.

(1B) If such an order as is mentioned in subsection (1) of this section is made by the Secretary of State, the aggregate amount of the payments made by him under this section during the period consisting of the financial years 1974-1976 and of the financial years of the Board ending in March 1977 and in March 1978 respectively shall not exceed £100 million; and, if no such order is made, the aggregate amount of the payments so made during the financial years 1974-1976 shall not exceed £60 million.”;

(c) after subsection (4) there shall be inserted the following subsection—

“(4A) The power to make such an order as is mentioned in subsection (1) of this section shall be exercisable by statutory instrument, but shall not be exercisable unless a draft of the order has been laid before the Commons House of Parliament and approved by a resolution of that House.”;

(d) in subsection (5), at the end, there shall be added the words " ' concessionary coal' means coal supplied free of charge or at reduced prices and ' the financial years 1974-1976' means the financial years of the Board ending in March 1974, March 1975 and March 1976 respectively ".