Railway Companies (Accounts and Returns) Act 1911

3 Alteration of First Schedule by Board of Trade

(1) The Board of Trade may by order, made under this section, alter or add to the First Schedule to this Act in such manner as they think fit ; and, on any such alteration or addition being made, this Act shall be construed as if those alterations or additions were made in the First Schedule thereto.

(2) When the Board propose to make any such alteration or addition, they shall publish in the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Gazettes, notice of the proposal and of the place where copies of the proposed alterations or additions may be obtained, and of the time, not being less than one month, within which any objection or suggestion made with respect to the alterations or additions by or on behalf of .persons affected must be lodged with the Board, and shall take such other steps as they think best adapted for giving information with respect to those matters to persons affected.

(3) The Board of Trade shall consider any objection or suggestion made by or on behalf of persons appearing to them to be affected, which is lodged within the required time, and give to any person lodging any such objection or suggestion an opportunity of communicating with the Board on the matter.

(4) Not less than one month and not more than three months after the expiration of the time within which objections must be lodged, notice may be given to the Board of Trade, by or on behalf of railway companies whose aggregate capital is not less than one third of the total aggregate capital of all railway companies in the United Kingdom, that the companies are not satisfied with the mode in which any objection lodged by a railway company has been dealt with, and in that case, unless the notice is withdrawn, the order of the Board shall be provisional only, and shall not take effect unless it is confirmed by Parliament.

(5) The Board of Trade may submit to Parliament a Bill for confirming any order made by them which requires to be so confirmed, and if, while any such Bill is pending in either House of Parliament, a petition is presented against any order comprised therein, the Bill, so far as it relates to the order, shall be referred to a Select Committee, or, if the two Houses of Parliament think fit so to order, to a joint committee of those Houses, and the petitioner shall be allowed to appear and oppose as in the case of Private Bills.

(6) The Board of Trade shall (in addition to the powers given to them under the foregoing provisions of this section) have power on the application of any company, to make as respects that company any special variation in the form of the accounts and returns set out in the First Schedule to this Act which appears to the Board to be required for the purpose of adapting the form to the particular circumstances of that company.