Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971



Banking and FinancialDealings Act 1971

1971 CHAPTER 80

An Act to make new provision in place of the Bank Holidays Act 1871, to confer power to suspend financial and other dealings on bank holidays or other days, and to amend the law relating to bills of exchange and promissory notes with reference to the maturity of bills and notes and other matters affected by the closing of banks on Saturdays, and for purposes connected therewith.

[16th December 1971]

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:—

S-1 Bank holidays.

1 Bank holidays.

(1) Subject to subsection (2) below, the days specified in Schedule 1 to this Act shall be bank holidays in England and Wales, in Scotland and in Northern Ireland as indicated in the Schedule.

(2) If it appears to Her Majesty that, in the special circumstances of any year, it is inexpedient that a day specified in Schedule 1 to this Act should be a bank holiday, Her Majesty may by proclamation declare that that day shall not in that year be a bank holiday and appoint another day in place of it; and the day appointed by the proclamation shall, in that year, be a bank holiday under this Act instead of the day specified in Schedule 1.

(3) Her Majesty may from time to time by proclamation appoint a special day to be, either throughout the United Kingdom or in any place or locality in the United Kingdom, a bank holiday under this Act.

(4) No person shall be compellable to make any payment or to do any act on a bank holiday under this Act which he would not be compellable to make or do on Christmas Day or Good Friday; and where a person would, apart from this subsection, be compellable to make any payment or to do any act on a bank holiday under this Act, his obligation to make the payment or to do the act shall be deemed to be complied with if he makes or does it on the next following day on which he is compellable to make or do it.

(5) The powers conferred on Her Majesty by subsections (2) and (3) above may, as respects Northern Ireland, be exercised by the Governor of Northern Ireland.

(6) The provision made by this section for January 2nd or 3rd to be a bank holiday in Scotland shall have effect for the year 1973 and subsequent years.

S-2 Power to suspend financial dealings.

2 Power to suspend financial dealings.

(1) If it appears to the Treasury necessary or expedient so to do in the national interest, they may by order (made by statutory instrument, which shall be laid before Parliament after being made) give, with respect to a day specified in the order, all or any of the following directions, namely:—

(a ) a direction that, subject to any exceptions for which provision may be made by the order, no person carrying on the business of a banker shall, except with permission granted by or on behalf of the Treasury, effect on that day, in the course of that business, any transaction or, according as may be specified in the order, a transaction of such kind as may be so specified;

(b ) a direction that, subject as aforesaid, no authorised dealer in foreign currency shall, on that day, except with permission so granted, deal in any foreign currency or, according as may be specified in the order, foreign currency of such kind as may be so specified;

(c ) a direction that, subject as aforesaid, no authorised dealer in gold shall on that day, except with permission so granted, deal in any gold;

(d ) a direction that, subject as aforesaid, no person shall on that day, except with permission so granted, deal in silver bullion;

(e ) a direction that, subject as aforesaid, no member of any commodity exchange or, as the case may be, of any such commodity exchange as may be specified in the order, shall, on that day, except with permission so granted, deal thereon in futures in any commodity or, according as may be so specified, in futures in a commodity of such kind as may be so specified;

(f ) a direction that the Post Office shall, on that day, suspend the operation of any banking service provided by it in exercise of the power conferred on it by section 7(1)(b ) of the Post Office Act 1969 ; and

(g ) a direction that no member of a stock exchange in the United Kingdom shall, on that day, effect any transaction on that exchange.

(2) Subsection (1)(a ) above shall not authorise the giving of directions to a person carrying on the business of a savings bank in respect of that business, nor to the Post Office in respect of any business carried on in exercise of the power conferred on it by section 7(1)(b ) of the Post Office Act 1969 .

(3) An obligation on a person to do a thing on a day on which he is prevented from doing it by an order under this section, or is unable to do it by reason of any such order, shall be deemed to be complied with if he does it so soon as practicable thereafter.

(4) A person who knowingly or recklessly contravenes a direction given by an order under subsection (1) of this section shall be guilty of an offence and liable—

(a ) on summary conviction, to a fine of not more than 400;

(b ) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for not more than two years or to a fine or to both.

(5) Where an offence under this section which has been committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the...

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