The Secretary of State may make grants or other payments for the purpose of securing or encouraging the carriage of goods by inland waterway or by sea rather than by road where he is satisfied that that is in the public interest.

Grants or payments under this section may in particular be made in respect of facilities for or in connection with the carriage of goods by inland waterway or by sea (including facilities for loading or unloading goods).

Grants or payments under this section shall be of such amount and subject to such conditions (including conditions requiring their repayment in specified circumstances) as the Secretary of State may determine.

So far as it relates to inland waterways that are wholly in Wales, the power conferred by this section is a power of the Welsh Ministers.

The power conferred by this section may only be exercised in or as regards Scotland if its exercise relates to reserved matters within the meaning of the M1Scotland Act 1998.

In this section—

• "inland waterway” includes both a natural and an artificial inland waterway;

• "sea adjacent to Wales” means the sea adjacent to Wales out as far as the seaward boundary of the territorial sea.

An order under section 158(3) of the Government of Wales Act 2006 determining, or making provision for determining, any boundary between waters which are to be treated as parts of the sea adjacent to Wales and those which are not applies for the purposes of the definition of ““sea adjacent to Wales”” in this section as it applies for the purposes of the definition of ““Wales”” in that Act.