Local Government (Contracts) Act 1997
| Year | 1997 |
Local Government (Contracts) Act 1997
1997 Chapter 65
An Act to make provision about the powers of local authorities (including probation committees and the Receiver for the Metropolitan Police District) to enter into contracts to enable expenditure of local authorities making administrative arrangements for magistrates' courts to be treated for some purposes as not being capital expenditure and for connected purposes.
[27th November 1997]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Contracts for provision of assets or services
1 Functions to include power to enter into contracts.
(1) Every statutory provision conferring or imposing a function on a local authority confers power on the local authority to enter into a contract with another person for the provision or making available of assets or services, or both, (whether or not together with goods) for the purposes of, or in connection with, the discharge of the function by the local authority.
(2) Where—
(a) a local authority enters into a contract such as is mentioned in subsection (1) (‘the provision contract’) under any statutory provision, and
(b) in connection with the provision contract, a person (‘the financier’) makes a loan to, or provides any other form of finance for, a party to the provision contract other than the local authority,
the statutory provision also confers power on the local authority to enter into a contract with the financier, or any insurer of or trustee for the financier, in connection with the provision contract.
(3) The following are local authorities for the purposes of this Act—
(a) any authority with respect to the finances of which Part IV of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 has effect at the time in question,
(b) any probation committee,
(c) the Receiver for the Metropolitan Police District, and
(d) any local authority or joint board as defined in section 235(1) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 .
(4) In this Act ‘assets’ means assets of any description (whether tangible or intangible), including (in particular) land, buildings, roads, works, plant, machinery, vehicles, vessels, apparatus, equipment and computer software.
(5) Regulations may be made amending subsection (4).
Certified contracts
2 Certified contracts to be intra vires.
(1) Where a local authority has entered into a contract, the contract shall, if it is a certified contract, have effect (and be deemed always to have had effect) as if the local authority had had power to enter into it (and had exercised that power properly in entering into it).
(2) For the purposes of this Act a contract entered into by a local authority is a certified contract if (and, subject to subsections (3) and (4), only if) the certification requirements have been satisfied by the local authority with respect to the contract and they were so satisfied before the end of the certification period.
(3) A contract entered into by a local authority shall be treated as a certified contract during the certification period if the contract provides that the certification requirements are intended to be satisfied by the local authority with respect to the contract before the end of that period.
(4) Where a local authority has entered into a contract which is a certi fied contract (‘the existing contract’) and the existing contract is replaced by a contract entered into by it with a person or persons not identical with the person or persons with whom it entered into the existing contract, the replacement contract is also a certified contract if—
(a) the period for which it operates or is intended to operate ends at the same time as the period for which the existing contract was to operate, and
(b) apart from that, its provisions are the same as those of the existing contract.
(5) In this Act ‘the certification period’, in relation to a contract entered into by a local authority, means the period of six weeks beginning with the day on which the local authority entered into the contract.
(6) Subsection (1) is subject to section 5 (special provisions about judicial reviews and audit reviews).
(7) The application of subsection (1) in relation to a contract entered into by a local authority does not affect any claim for damages made by a person who is not (and has never been) a party to the contract in respect of a breach by the local authority of any duty to do, or not to do, something before entering into the contract (including, in particular, any such duty imposed by a statutory provision for giving effect to any Community obligation relating to public procurement or by section 17(1) of the Local Government Act 1988 ).
3 The certification requirements.
(1) In this Act ‘the certification requirements’, in relation to a contract entered into by a local authority, means the requirements specified in subsections (2) to (4).
(2) The requirement specified in this subsection is that the local authority must have issued a certificate (whether before or after the contract is entered into)—
(a) including details of the period for which the contract operates or is to operate,
(b) describing the purpose of the contract,
(c) containing a statement that the contract is or is to be a contract falling within section 4(3) or (4),
(d) stating that the local authority had or has power to enter into the contract and specifying the statutory provision, or each of the statutory provisions, conferring the power,
(e) stating that a copy of the certificate has been or is to be given to each person to whom a copy is required to be given by regulations,
(f) dealing in a manner prescribed by regulations with any matters required by regulations to be dealt with in certificates under this section, and
(g) confirming that the local authority has complied with or is to comply with any requirement imposed by regulations with respect to the issue of certificates under this section.
(3) The requirement specified in this subsection is that the local authority must have secured that the certificate is signed by any person who is required by regulations to sign it.
(4) The requirement specified in this subsection is that the local authority must have obtained consent to the issue of a certificate under this section from each of the persons with whom the local authority has entered, or is to enter, into the contract.
4 Certified contracts: supplementary.
(1) Where the certification requirements have been satisfied in relation to a contract by a local authority, the certificate which has been issued shall have effect (and be deemed always to have had effect) as if the local authority had had power to issue it (and had exercised that power properly in issuing it) and a certificate which has been so issued is not invalidated by reason that anything in the certificate is inaccurate or untrue.
(2) Where the certification requirements ha ve been satisfied in relation to a contract by a local authority within section 1(3)(a) or (d), the local authority shall secure that throughout the period for which the contract operates—
(a) a copy of the certificate which has been issued...
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