Films Act 1985

4 Final payments by British Film Fund Agency

(1) Where the British Film Fund Agency receive any amount from the Secretary of State in accordance with section 3(3), that amount shall be added to the moneys available for distribution by the Agency under the distribution regulations in respect of the final distribution period.

(2) With the consent of the Secretary of State payments under the distribution regulations in respect of the final distribution period may be made by the Agency after the date by which they would otherwise have been required to be made by virtue of the regulations.

(3) Where

(a) any claim made under the distribution regulations or any corresponding earlier regulations has been accepted by the Agency and they have allocated an amount for the payment of that claim ; but

(b) owing to any lack of information relating to the claimant, or owing to any other circumstances outside their control, they have been unable to secure the payment to the claimant of that amount,

they shall take such steps as they consider appropriate for the purpose of facilitating the securing of that result.

(4) Where the Agency take such steps as are mentioned in subsection (3) with respect to any claim but are nevertheless unable to secure the payment to the claimant of the amount in question before the relevant date, the Agency shall on that date discount the claim for the purposes of the distribution regulations, and the amount in question shall—

(a) in the case of a claim in respect of a period other than the final distribution period, be added to the moneys available for distribution by the Agency under the distribution regulations in respect of the final distribution period;

(b) in the case of a claim in respect of the final distribution period, be paid to the Secretary of State to be dealt with by him as if it were an amount received by him as mentioned in section 3 (2) (b).

(5) In subsection (4) " the relevant date ", in relation to a claim falling within paragraph (a) or (b) of that subsection, means such date as may be fixed by the Secretary of State for the purposes of that paragraph ; and that date may—

(a) in the case of paragraph (a), be earlier than the date by which payments in respect of the period immediately preceding the final distribution period are required to be made by virtue of the distribution regulations;

(b) in the case of paragraph (b), be earlier than the date by which payments in repect of the final distribution period are so required to be made.

(6) In this section " the distribution regulations " and " the final distribution period " have the meaning given by section 2(1) (but subject to section 2(4) (b)).