Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947

Title and introductory text

Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947 1947 c. 43 An Act to consolidate with amendments the enactments relating to authorities for the purposes of local government in Scotland. [31st July 1947]

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179 Payments by county council in respect of salaries of procurators fiscal, etc.

Every county council shall in each year make payment of the following salaries, fees, outlays and expenses so far as the same were immediately before the commencement of this Act by law or usage payable by the council:— (1) the salaries, fees and necessary outlays of procurators fiscal in the sheriff court; (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (3) the expenses connected with upholding, repairing, enlarging, renting, furnishing, insuring, lighting, cleaning or warming any courthouse, and all taxes and rates legally chargeable thereon; (4)—(6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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193 Apportionment of general expenses.

In determining the amount of the expenses for any particular purpose including the expenses of administering any trust under the control of a local authority, such proper proportion as the local authority determine of the cost of officers, buildings and establishment and any other expenses which are treated by the authority as, or are directed to be defrayed as, general expenses of the authority shall be added to and treated as part of the expenses directly incurred for that purpose.

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195 Savings.

Nothing in this Part of this Act or Part VII of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 shall— (a) be deemed to require or authorise a local authority to apply or dispose of the surplus annual revenue arising from any undertaking carried on by them otherwise than in accordance with the provisions of any enactment or statutory order relating to the undertaking; or (b) affect the operation of section one of the Roads Act, 1920, or of any Order in Council made thereunder; or (c) affect the provision of any enactment or statutory order with respect to the keeping of accounts by a local authority for the purpose of that enactment or order so far as inconsistent herewith.

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216 Requisitions by joint committees and joint boards.

Every joint committee or joint board the expenses of which are defrayed in whole or in part by the local authorities concerned shall, notwithstanding anything in any enactment, order or agreement, by such date as may be prescribed, cause a requisition to be sent to each of the authorities concerned requiring the authority to pay to the joint committee or joint board the sum specified in the requisition, being the authority’s proportion of the expenses of the joint committee or joint board; and the authority shall, at such intervals and by such instalments as may be prescribed, pay over to the joint committee or joint board the sum so requisitioned, so far as payable by the authority, without any deduction whatever, so however that the last instalment shall be payable not later than the first day of May in the year first occurring after the date of the requisition, and any provisions contained in any enactment or statutory order inconsistent with this subsection shall cease to have effect. In this section— (a) references to a joint committee or joint board shall be construed as references to a joint committee or joint board all the members of which, other than ex officio members, are appointed by one or more local authorities; (b) “prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made by the Secretary of State under section 111 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.

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233 Assessment Roll.

(1) Every rating authority shall make up and maintain in such form as may be convenient a roll called “the assessment roll” containing such information as the authority require for the purpose of collecting every rate levied by the authority: Provided that the Secretary of State may by regulations made under section 111 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 prescribe information which the assessment roll shall contain if at any time he considers this necessary. (2) The assessment roll shall at all reasonable times be open to inspection by any person interested in or liable to pay any rate to which the roll relates, and any such person may take extracts therefrom without payment of any fee. (3) The rating authority may, at any time before the expiration of one year after the end of the year in respect of which any rate is levied, amend the assessment roll by inserting therein the name of any person who ought to have been entered therein as liable in the rate or who since the making up of the roll has become so liable, or by striking out the name of any person who according to a written certificate by the assessor under the Valuation Acts ought not to have been so entered, or by correcting the amount of any value or rate which may have been inaccurately entered, and any such amendment shall not vitiate the rate or render it less operative. (4) The production of the assessment roll shall be received as sufficient evidence of the making and validity of the rates therein mentioned.

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235 Rating authority may require owner to furnish statement of lets.

(1) . . . , a rating authority may require an owner of lands and heritages within the area of the authority to furnish a written statement of the periods for which the lands and heritages are let to the respective tenants or occupiers thereof . . . , which statement the owner shall be bound to furnish within seven days of being required in writing so to do. (2) Any owner of lands and heritages who fails without reasonable excuse to furnish such statement within the period aforesaid shall be liable on summary conviction to a penalty not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale, and any such owner who furnishes or causes to be furnished any false statement as to the period of let . . . knowing the same to be false shall be liable on summary conviction to a penalty of level 3 on the standard scale

236 Fractions of a penny of rates.

In calculating and collecting the amount payable by a ratepayer in respect of rates levied by a rating authority, any fractional part of a new penny less than one new halfpenny shall not be reckoned as part of the amount of such rates, and any fractional part of a new penny amounting to or exceeding a new halfpenny shall be reckoned in the amount of such rates as one new penny.

237 Demand note for rates.

(1) Every rating authority shall as soon as practicable cause to be issued demand notes for payment of rates payable to the authority to every person liable in payment thereof. (2) Every such demand note (other than a demand note issued in respect only of a second or later instalment of rates) shall contain information with respect to the following matters, that is to say— (a) the situation of the lands and heritages in respect of which the demand note is issued and such description thereof as is reasonably necessary for the purpose of identification; and (b) the rateable value of the lands and heritages . . .; and (c) the date on which the rates are payable; and (d) the period in respect of which the rates are levied; and (e) the amount per pound in the case of each of the rates; and (f) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (g) the manner in which and the time within which appeals may be made against the rates. (3) A demand note shall be in such form, and shall contain such information in addition to the information required by subsection (2) above, as may be prescribed by regulations made by the Secretary of State under section 111 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. (4) So far as practicable every rating authority shall include in one demand note all the rates levied by the authority in respect of the same lands and heritages and payable by the person named in the demand note.

238 Appeals against rates.

(1) In respect of each rate levied by them every rating authority shall fix a date on or before which any person may lodge with the officer of the authority designated for the purpose an appeal against the rates claimed from him on the ground that he is being improperly charged, and another date on which the appeals shall be heard by the rating authority or a committee thereof. . . . . (2) The demand note shall contain a notice of the date by which appeals may be lodged and state the name or designation and the address of the officer with whom appeals may be lodged, and if the date for the hearing of appeals is not notified in the demand note, notice in writing thereof shall be given on behalf of the authority to the persons appealing. (3) Every rating authority may if they think fit make rules with respect to the lodging and hearing of appeals under this section, so however that such rules shall not be inconsistent with the provisions of this Part of this Act. (4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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240 Owner may be charged with occupiers’ rates where subjects let for less than a year.

. . . , a rating authority may if they think fit levy upon the owner any . . . rate in respect of lands and heritages separately let for a shorter period than one year, but the authority shall allow to such owner a deduction from the . . . rate equal to two and one-half per centum thereof, and such . . . rate shall be recoverable from the owner along with any penalty which may become exigible thereon in the same way as in the case of recovery from occupiers, and every such owner charged with and paying . . . rates shall have relief against the occupiers of the lands and heritages for the full amount of the . . . rates without deduction corresponding to the period of occupancy, and so far as he is unable to recover the amount paid by him to the rating authority, the owner shall be entitled to repayment (under deduction of two and one-half per centum as aforesaid) from the authority upon lodging a claim on or before a date fixed for the purpose by the authority, without prejudice to the right of the authority to make adjustments with the owner in respect of any sum subsequently recovered by him in respect of such . . . rates.

241 Rates on subjects not occupied by same occupier for whole year.

. . . , a rating authority may if they think fit, in the case of any lands and heritages (not being lands and heritages usually let for a period shorter than one year) which are not occupied by the same occupier for the whole year from the term of Whitsunday in one year to the term of Whitsunday in the year following, but are occupied for part of such year by a new occupier, levy upon the new occupier who occupies the lands and heritages for any part of the year, whether his name appears in the valuation roll or not a proportion of the rate for that year corresponding to the period of his occupancy, and may if they think fit levy upon the owner of the lands and heritages the proportion of the rate, if any, corresponding to the period during which the lands and heritages were occupied during the said year by any other occupier, but the authority shall allow to such owner a deduction from the . . . rates equal to two and one-half per centum thereof, and such . . . rates shall be recoverable from the owner along with any penalty which may become exigible thereon in the same way as in the case of recovery from occupiers, and every such owner charged and paying . . . rates shall have relief against any such other occupiers for the full amount of the rates without deduction corresponding to the period of occupancy, and so far as he fails to recover the amount payable by any such other occupiers he shall be entitled to repayment (under deduction of two and one-half per centum as aforesaid) from the authority upon lodging a claim on or before a date to be fixed for the purpose by the authority, without prejudice to the right of the authority to make adjustments with the owner in respect of any sum subsequently recovered by him in respect of such . . . rates.

242 Outgoing occupier to have right of relief for rates against incoming occupier.

An outgoing occupier removing from any lands and heritages during the currency of a year for which he has paid the . . . rates in respect of the said lands and heritages levied by the rating authority shall have a right of relief against the incoming occupier for the proportion of the said rates applicable to the period of the year remaining unexpired at the entry of the incoming occupier.

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247 Recovery of rates.

(1) Subject to subsections (4) and (5) below, arrears of rates may be recovered by a rating authority by diligence— (a) authorised by a summary warrant granted under subsection (2) below; or (b) in pursuance of a decree granted in an action for payment. (2) Subject to subsection (4) below, the sheriff, on an application by the rating authority accompanied by a certificate by the rating authority— (a) stating that none of the persons specified in the application has paid the rates due by him; (aa) in a case to which section 8A of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1975 applies, stating that— (i) the authority has served a notice on each such person under section 8A(2) of that Act in respect of the rates, (ii) the unpaid amount of the rates due for the year (or part of the year) to which the notice relates has become payable under section 8A(4)(b) or (5)(c) of that Act, and (iii) a period of 14 days beginning with the day on which that amount became payable has expired; (b) in any other case, stating that the authority has given written notice to each such person requiring him to make payment of the amount due by him within a period of 14 days after the date of the giving of the notice; (c) stating that the period of 14 days mentioned in paragraph (aa)(iii) or (as the case may be) (b) has expired without payment of the amount mentioned in that paragraph; and (d) specifying the amount due and unpaid by each such person, shall grant a summary warrant in a form prescribed by Act of Sederunt authorising the recovery by any of the diligences mentioned in subsection (3) below of the amount remaining due and unpaid along with a surcharge of 10 per cent. (or such percentage as may be prescribed) of that amount. (3) The diligences referred to in subsection (2) above are— (a) an attachment; (aa) a money attachment; (b) an earnings arrestment; (c) an arrestment and action of furthcoming or sale. (4) It shall not be competent for the sheriff to grant a summary warrant under subsection (2) above in respect of rates due by a debtor if an action has already been commenced for the recovery of those rates; and, without prejudice to subsection (5) below, on the commencing of an action for the recovery of rates, any existing summary warrant in so far as it relates to the recovery of those rates shall cease to have effect. (5) It shall not be competent to commence an action for the recovery of rates if, in pursuance of a summary warrant, any of the diligences mentioned in subsection (3) above for the recovery of those rates has been executed. (6) In any proceedings for the recovery of rates, whether by summary warrant or otherwise, no person shall be entitled to found upon failure of the rating authority or any other authority to comply with any provision of this Part of this Act relating to the date by which something shall be done, not being a provision in this section or a provision regulating the diligence. (7) Regulations under subsection (2) above shall be made by statutory instrument and shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

247A Sheriff officer’s fees and outlays.

(1) Subject to subsection (2) below and without prejudice to section 39(1) of the Debt Arrangement and Attachment (Scotland) Act 2002 (asp 17) (expenses of attachment) and section 196(1) of the Bankruptcy and Diligence etc. (Scotland) Act 2007 (asp 3) (expenses of money attachment), the sheriff officer’s fees, together with the outlays necessarily incurred by him, in connection with the execution of a summary warrant shall be chargeable against the debtor. (2) No fee shall be chargeable by the sheriff officer against the debtor for collecting, and accounting to the rating authority for, sums paid to him by the debtor in respect of the amount owing.