Subject to the next following section, each of the Boards and the Holding Company shall have power to pay pensions and enter into obligations under pension schemes.

Each of the Boards and the Holding Company shall have power to lend money to be applied for the purposes of a pension scheme under which any of those bodies, or a subsidiary of any of those bodies, pay employer’s contributions or are subject to any other obligations, but shall not exercise that power without the consent of the Minister.

In the application of this section to the British Waterways Board, the reference to the Minister is to be read as a reference to the Scottish Ministers.