Part IThe Environment Agency and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency
Chapter IIIMiscellaneous, General and Supplemental Provisions Relating to the New Agencies
General financial provisions
49Government loans to the new Agencies
(1)
The appropriate Minister may, with the approval of the Treasury, lend to a new Agency any sums which it has power to borrow under section 48(3) above.
(2)
Any loan made under this section by one of the appropriate Ministers shall be repaid to him at such times and by such methods, and interest on the loan shall be paid to him at such rates and at such times, as that Minister may with the approval of the Treasury from time to time determine.
(3)
If in any financial year any of the appropriate Ministers lends any sums to a new Agency under this section, he shall—
(a)
prepare in respect of that financial year an account of the sums so lent by him; and
(b)
send that account to the Comptroller and Auditor General before the end of September in the following financial year;
and the form of the account and the manner of preparing it shall be such as the Treasury may direct.
(4)
The Comptroller and Auditor General shall examine, certify and report on each account sent to him under this section and shall lay copies of it and of his report before each House of Parliament.
(5)
The Treasury may issue to any of the appropriate Ministers—
(a)
out of the National Loans Fund, or
(b)
out of money provided by Parliament,
such sums as are necessary to enable him to make loans to a new Agency under this section; and any sums received by a Minister of the Crown in pursuance of subsection (2) above shall be paid into the National Loans Fund or, as the case may be, the Consolidated Fund.