Metropolitan Police Act 1886

1 Short title

This Act may be cited as the Metropolitan Police Act, 1886. The Acts mentioned in the First Schedule to this Act may be cited by the short titles respectively in that schedule mentioned.

This Act and the [10 Geo. 4. c. 44.] Metropolitan Police Acts, 1829 to [47 & 48 Vict. c. 17.] 1884, and the Acts mentioned in the First Schedule to this Act, and the Police Expenses Act, 1875, so far as it relates to the metropolitan police force, may be cited together as the Metropolitan Police Acts, 1829 to 1886.

2 Power of receiver with respect to construction of buildings and purchase of land

The police receiver from time to time may provide, by building or otherwise, a central office and such police stations, offices, houses, and buildings as are required for the purposes of the metropolitan police force, and the execution of the enactments relating to such force, and may improve, enlarge, fit up, and provide proper access, yards, and other appurtenances for, any offices, stations, houses, and buildings provided either before or after the passing of this Act for the above purposes, or any of them, and may purchase and take on lease and hold for the said purposes any land and any rights or easements from over or upon that or any other land, or may exercise any of such powers.

3 Power to raise 200,000l. on mortgage of metropolitan police fund

(1) For the purpose of any purchase under this Act, and of any works under this Act which the police receiver, with such approval as in this Act mentioned, determines to be of a permanent character, the police receiver may from time to time borrow, on the security of the metropolitan police fund, and of the property vested in the police receiver or any part or parts thereof, any sum or sums, so that the aggregate principal sums for the time being due under this section do not exceed in the whole two hundred thousand pounds.

(2) All sums so borrowed shall be paid into the Bank of England to the account of the police receiver, and shall be repaid with the interest thereon within a period not exceeding thirty, or in the case of a sum borrowed for the purchase of freehold land, sixty years from the date at which the same are borrowed.

(3) Such money may be borrowed in manner provided by the [38 & 39 Vict. c. 83.] Local Loans Act, 1875, and any Act amending the same, by the issue of any of the securities in the said Acts mentioned, and for the purposes of such borrowing a sinking fund may be created, and the provisions of the said Acts shall apply as if " Secretary of State " were therein substituted for " Local Government Board, " and as if the police receiver were a local authority and the metropolitan police fund a local rate as therein defined.

(4) The Metropolitan Board of Works may lend any money authorised by this Act to be borrowed by the police receiver.

4 Purchase of land

(1) For the purpose of the purchase of land by the police receiver, the [8 & 9 Vict. c. 18.] Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845, and the Acts amending the same, (in this section referred to as the Lands Clauses Acts), shall be incorporated with this Act, except the provisions relating to access to the special Act, and, except section one hundred and twenty-seven of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845, relating to the sale of superfluous land, and in construing the Lands Clauses Acts for the purpose of this section, the special Act shall be construed to mean this Act, and the promoters of the undertaking shall be construed to mean the police receiver, and land shall be construed to include any right over land.

(2) The police receiver, before putting in force any of the powers of the Lands Clauses Acts with respect to the purchase and taking of land otherwise than by agreement, shall—

(a) publish, once at the least during three consecutive weeks in the months of September, October and November, or any of them, in some one and the same newspaper circulating in the locality, an advertisement describing shortly the object for which the land is proposed to be taken, naming a place in the neighbourhood of the land proposed to be taken, where a plan of such land may be seen at all reasonable hours, and stating the quantity of such land, and shall further,

(b) during the month next following the month in which such advertisements are published, serve a notice in manner mentioned in this section on every owner or reputed owner, lessee, or reputed lessee, and occupier of such land, so far as such owners, lessees, and occupiers can be reasonably ascertained, defining in each case the land intended to be taken, and requiring an answer stating whether the person so served assents, dissents, or is neuter in respect of taking such land ; and

(c) where any person above-mentioned as required to be served is absent abroad or cannot be found, the notice may be served on his agent, or if no agent can be found, by leaving the same at the premises,

(d) Service of a notice on a person whether principal or agent may be made—

i. by delivery of the same personally to such person ; or

ii. by leaving the same at the usual or last known place of abode of such person, or by forwarding the same by post in a prepaid letter, addressed to the usual or last known place of abode of such person ; and

iii. one notice addressed to the occupier or occupiers of a house without naming him or them, and left at that house shall be deemed a notice served on that occupier, and on all the occupiers of that house,

iv. A notice required to be served on a number of persons having any right in common, in, over, or on land may be served on any three or more of such persons on behalf of all of such persons.

iv. Where a notice is served by post it shall be deemed to have been served at the time "when the letter containing the same would be delivered in the ordinary course of post, and in proving such service it shall be sufficient to prove that the letter containing the same was properly addressed and put into the, post.

(3) Upon compliance as respects any land with the provisions contained in this section with, respect to advertisements and notices, the police receiver may, if he think fit, present a petition to the Secretary of State; the petition shall describe the said land, and state the purposes for which it is required, and the names of the owners and lessees, or reputed owners and lessees, and occupiers of land who have assented, dissented, or are neuter in respect of the taking of such land, or who have returned no answer to the notice, and shall pray for an order authorising the police receiver with reference to such land to put in force the powers of the Lands Clauses Acts with respect to the purchase and taking of land otherwise than by agreement, and the petition shall be supported by such evidence as the Secretary of State may require.

(4) If, on consideration of the petition and proof of the publication of the proper advertisements and service of the proper notices, the Secretary of State thinks fit to proceed with the case, he may, if he thinks fit, appoint some person to inquire in the locality in which the land is situate respecting the propriety of making the order prayed for, and also direct such person to hold a. public inquiry, and if a public inquiry is held, the person holding the same shall have the same powers as an inspector of the Local Government Board has upon holding a local inquiry under the [38 & 39 Vict. c. 55.] Public Health Act, 1875.

(5) After such consideration and proof, and if there is an inquiry after receiving the report made upon such inquiry, the Secretary of State may make an order authorising the police receiver to put in force with reference to the land referred to in the petition, or such part thereof as is described" in such order, the powers of the Lands Clauses Acts with respect to the purchase and taking of land otherwise than by agreement, or any of them, and that either absolutely or with such conditions and modifications as he may think fit, and it shall be the duty of the police receiver to serve a copy of any order so made in the manner and upon the persons in which and upon whom notices in respect of the land to which the order relates are required by this Act to be served,

(6) An order so made shall not be of any validity unless the same has been confirmed by Act of Parliament; and it shall be lawful for the Secretary of State, as soon as conveniently may be, to obtain such confirmation. If while the Bill confirming such order is pending in either House of Parliament a petition is presented. against the order, the Bill, so far as it relates to such order, may be referred to a Select Committee, and the petitioner shall be allowed to appear and oppose, as in the case of private Bills, and the Act confirming such order shall be deemed to be a public general Act of Parliament.

(7) An order made in pursuance of this section, when confirmed by Parliament with such modifications as seem fit to Parliament, shall have full effect.

(8) A Secretary of State, in case of refusing or modifying the order prayed for, may make such order as he thinks fit for the allowance of the reasonable costs, charges, and expenses which any person whose land was proposed to be taken has properly incurred in opposing the order.

(9) All costs, charges, and expenses incurred by the Secretary of State in relation to any order under this section shall, to such amount as the Treasury think proper to direct, and all costs, charges, and expenses of any person which are so allowed by the Secretary of State as aforesaid, shall be a charge upon the metropolitan police fund, and be paid to the Treasury or to such person respectively, by the police receiver, either in one payment or by annual instalments not exceeding five, and if by instalments together with interest after the yearly rate of four pounds in the hundred, to be computed from the date of any such direction of the Treasury, or allowance of such costs, charges, and expenses respectively upon so much of the principal sum due as may from time to time remain unpaid.

(10) Any land purchased in pursuance of any order under this section, confirmed by Act of Parliament, shall be purchased within three years after the passing of that Act.

(11) The provisions of this Act with respect to the purchase of land by the police receiver shall extend to the purchase of land of which such receiver is lessee or occupier in like manner as if another person were for the time being lessee or occupier of such land, save that the provisions with respect to the notices to, and the assent or dissent of, and the service of a copy of the order on, lessees and occupiers-shall not apply so far as respects the police receiver, and save that after an order under this section for purchasing such land is confirmed by Parliament, the police receiver may give notice to and purchase the estate, right, or interest of some one or more only of the parties interested in the land, but in that case he shall, if any other of such parties, by notice in writing, so requires him, purchase the estate, right, or interest in the land of such party.

5 Restriction on purchase of houses occupied by persons belonging to the labouring classes

(1) The police receiver shall not, in the exercise of any power conferred by this Act, purchase in the metropolis within the meaning of the Metropolis Management Act, 1855, twenty or more houses, nor elsewhere ten or more houses, which at the date of the agreement for purchase, or if the purchase is not to be by agreement, of the publication of the advertisements, are occupied either wholly or partially by persons belonging to the labouring classes as tenants or lodgers, unless and until he has obtained the approval of the Local Government Board to a scheme for providing new dwellings for the said persons or for such proportion of them as the Local Government Board after inquiry deem necessary, having regard to the number of persons belonging to the labouring classes who on or after the said date are residing in such houses and working within one mile therefrom, and to the amount of vacant suitable "accommodation in the immediate neighbourhood of such houses, and to the place of employment of such persons, and to all the circumstances of the case.

(2) Every such scheme shall contain provisions prescribing the time within which it is to be carried into effect, and requiring that the new dwellings provided under the scheme shall be completed fit for occupation before the persons residing in the houses proposed to be purchased are displaced.

(3) The carrying into effect of a scheme under this section shall be deemed to be one of the purposes of this Act, and accordingly for such purpose the police receiver may appropriate any land for the time being vested in him, and may purchase under this Act land with or without buildings, and may on such land erect dwellings for persons of the labouring classes ; and may defray the expenses of such purchase and erection as part of the expenses of the execution of this Act, and may borrow money.

(4) The scheme shall provide that all buildings provided by the police receiver in pursuance of a scheme under this section shall, for not less than twenty-five years, be appropriated for the purposes of dwellings for persons belonging to the labouring classes, and every disposition of such buildings shall be framed so as to give effect to such provisions, but subject thereto the police receiver may sell, let, or otherwise dispose of, such buildings and of the land purchased for such buildings.

(5) The Local Government Board may approve, either absolutely or conditionally, of any scheme under this section and of any modifications of a scheme previously approved by such Board, and may dispense, absolutely or conditionally, with any such conditions and with any provisions required by this section to be inserted in the scheme, but unless so dispensed with such conditions and provisions may be enforced by mandamus.

(6) The Local Government Board may direct any inquiries which they may deem necessary in relation to any scheme under this section, and the inspectors of the Local Government Board shall, for the purposes of any such inquiry, have all such powers as they have for the purpose of inquiries directed by the Local Government Board under the [38 & 39 Vict. c. 55.] Public Health Act, 1875, and all sums certified by the Local Government Board to be the amount of expenses incurred by them in or incidental to any such inquiry shall be defrayed by the police receiver, and shall be paid by him either in one payment or by annual instalments not exceeding five ; and if by instalments, together with interest after the yearly rate of four pounds in the hundred, to be computed from the date of the certificate of the Local Government Board, upon so much of the principal sum as from time to time remains unpaid.

(7) For the purposes of this section the expression " persons belonging to the labouring classes " includes mechanics, artizans, labourers, and others working for wages, hawkers, costermongers, persons not working for wages but working at some trade or handicraft without employing others except members of their own family, and persons other than domestic servants whose income does not exceed an average of thirty shillings a week, and the families of any such persons who may be residing with them.

6 Approval of Secretary of State for purchases and loans

Every purchase, sale, scheme, or lease by the police receiver under the Metropolitan Police Acts, 1829 to 1884, or this Act, and the raising of any loan by the police receiver under this Act, shall be subject to the approval of a Secretary of State, and also, in the case of a loan, of the Treasury; provided that it shall not be necessary far any vendor, purchaser, lessor, lessee, or lender to ascertain that such approval has been given.

7 Definitions

In this Act—

• The expression " Secretary of State " means one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State :

• The expression " Treasury " means the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury:

• The expression " police receiver " means the receiver for the metropolitan police district.

• The expression " metropolitan police fund " means the rates, contributions, and funds for the time being applicable for defraying the expenses of the metropolitan police force.

8 Repeal

The Act mentioned in the Second Schedule to this Act is hereby repealed to the extent specified in the third column of that Schedule, without prejudice to anything done or suffered before the passing of this Act.