A.D. 1926.

Powers to make advances.

(g) The Secretary for Mines;

(h) Secretary of the Department of Overseas Trade (Development and Intelligence);

(i) The Minister of Transport.

(k) The Under Secretary for the Colonies.

(4) The Board may act by three of their number and notwithstanding a vacancy in their number and may regulate their own procedure.

5

(5) The Board may appoint and employ such officers and servants for the purpose of this Act as they think 10 necessary and may remove any officer or servant so appointed and employed and there shall be paid to such officers and servants such salaries or remuneration as the Board may determine.

(6) The salaries of the officers and servants of the 15 Board in the execution of their duties under this Act shall be defrayed out of the National Employment and Development Fund.

(7) There shall be transferred and attached to the Board such of the persons employed under any govern- 20 ment department or local authority wholly or partially in or about the execution of the powers and duties by or in pursuance of this Act transferred to the Board as the Board may, with the consent of the government department or local authority and the Treasury, deter- 25

mine :

Provided that if an officer of any authority to which the Poor Law Officers' Superannuation Act, 1896, applies is under this Act transferred to the Board, and has made the annual contributions required to be made under that 30 Act, the provision of that Act shall apply, subject to such modifications as the Board may by order direct, for the purpose of making that Act applicable to the case.

(8) The Board shall have an official seal, which shall be officially and judicially noticed and shall be 35 authenticated by the signature of the chairman or any person authorised by the chairman to act in that behalf.

2. (1) The Board shall have power to make advances out of the funds at their disposal to be expended either in the United Kingdom or in any other 40 part of the British Empire to or through such government departments, Dominion or Colonial governments, local or public authorities or associations of persons or

companies, either by way of grant or by way of loan, or A.D. 1926. partly in one way or partly in the other, and upon such terms and subject to such conditions as they may think fit for any purpose calculated, in their opinion, to promote 5 employment, including the better utilisation and development of land, capital undertakings, transport and mines and electrical undertakings or for any purpose contained in section one of the Development and Road Improvement Funds Act, 1909, as amended, or section one of 10 the Trade Facilities Act, 1921, as amended, or for other purposes, including emigration.

(2) The powers of the Treasury under the Overseas Trade Acts, 1920 to 1924, and under the Trade Facilities Acts, 1921 to 1925, and the Development and Road 15 Improvement Funds Act, 1909, and any Act amending that Act shall be exercised after consultation with the Board.

3.-(1) In order so far as may be practicable to main- Power to tain at an approximately constant level the national prepare 20 aggregate demand for labour by public departments, local national authorities and private employers, the Board shall pursue and developemployment continuous investigation into the nature of and remedies ment for unemployment, and acting in consultation with the schemes. several departments competent to order works or services, 25 shall prepare schemes for the execution of works or services, to come into operation at such times as the state of unemployment then prevailing may require, and approve schemes made by local authorities under section four of this Act for the like purpose.

30

(2) Such schemes shall include all or any proposed works or services for which the Board would have power to make advances under this Act and also all other works or services of whatsoever nature which, in their opinion, would tend to diminish unemployment. 35 (3) The chairman of the Board shall annually present to Parliament a report containing full details of the preparation, progress and execution of such schemes, including the information and statistics obtained under subsection (2) of section one of this Act.

40 4. (1) For the purpose of this Act the council of Duty of every borough and urban district and of every county, local so far as such county is outside a borough or urban authorities district, shall be the local authority.

to prepare

and execute

A.D. 1926.

(2) The local authority shall consider the existence and probabilities of unemployment within their area employment and shall, at such times and for such purposes and under and develop such conditions (including joint action with other local authorities), as the Board may prescribe prepare schemes 5 of work and services to be executed within their several or joint areas respectively for the approval of the Board.

ment schemes.

Finance.

(3) On any such scheme being approved by the Board, it shall become the duty of the local authority or authorities who have prepared such scheme to carry into execution such scheme within such time and subject to such conditions as the Board may prescribe.

10

(4) If any local authority fail to prepare such schemes or to execute them within the time and in the manner required by the Board, the Board, either themselves or 15 through such government department as they may deem appropriate, shall prepare or execute such schemes and may recover from such local authority such part of the expense of the preparation or execution of such schemes as the Board may think fit as a civil debt. 20

(5) The costs of any local authority in or about the preparation or execution of any scheme under this section, in so far as such cost is not met by the Board under section two of this Act, or otherwise defrayed by national grants, shall be defrayed as expenses of the local authority 25 under the Public Health Acts and the local authority may borrow for the purposes of this Act or any scheme made thereunder in the same manner and subject to the same provisions as they may borrow for the purposes of the Public Health Acts:

Provided that the limitation on borrowing contained in subsections (2) and (3) of section two hundred and forty-three of the Public Health Act, 1875, shall not apply to money borrowed for the purposes of this Act.

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5.-(1) There shall be charged on and issued out of the Consolidated Fund or the growing produce thereof in the year ending the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and twenty-seven, and in each subsequent year the sum of ten million pounds to be styled the National 40 Employment and Development Fund.

(2) All moneys unexpended in any year shall remain in and stand to the credit of the National Employment and

Development Fund and shall be employed only for the A.D. 1926. purposes of this Act.

(3) The Board may from time to time invest any moneys standing to the credit of the National Employ5 ment and Development Fund in any securities in which trustees are authorised by law to invest trust funds.

(4) All advances and expenses incurred by the Board in the execution of their duties under this Act shall be defrayed out of the National Employment and Development 10 Fund.

(5) The Board shall cause an account to be prepared showing the receipts into and issues out of the National Employment and Development Fund in the financial year ended on the thirty-first day of March preceding and such 15 account shall be laid before Parliament at the same time as the report referred to in section three of this Act.

6. (1) This Act may be cited as the Prevention Short title of Unemployment Act, 1926.

(2) This Act shall not extend to Northern Ireland.

and extent.