National Loans Act 1939
| Year | 1939 |
National Loans Act, 1939
(2 & 3 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 117.
An Act to confer on the Treasury powers to raise money and exchange securities, and for purposes connected therewith.
[16th November 1939]
Most Gracious Sovereign,
We , Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects the Commons of the United Kingdom in Parliament assembled, towards making good the supply which we have cheerfully granted to Your Majesty in this Session of Parliament, have resolved that money be raised in manner provided by this Act; and do therefore most humbly beseech Your Majesty that it may be enacted and be it enacted by the King'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:—
1 Power of Treasury to raise money.
(1) Any money required—
(a ) for raising any supply granted to His Majesty for the service of the year ending the thirty-first day of March nineteen hundred and forty, and, in addition, a sum not exceeding two hundred and fifty million pounds; or
(b ) for the repayment of any maturing securities issued under the War Loan Acts, 1914 to 1919, or of any Treasury Bills or Ways and Means advances;
may be raised in such manner as the Treasury think fit.
(2) For the purpose of raising money under this section, the Treasury may create and issue such securities as they think fit.
(3) For the avoidance of doubt it is hereby declared—
(a ) that the power to raise money under this section extends to raising money either within or outside the United Kingdom and either in sterling or in any other currency; and
(b ) that the reference in this section to securities issued under the War Loan Acts, 1914 to 1919, includes a reference to any securities which, by virtue of any Act, are to be deemed to have been created and issued under those Acts or any of the provisions thereof.
(4) The power to raise money under this section shall be in addition to and not in derogation of any other power to borrow exercisable by the Treasury; and notwithstanding anything in section fifty-nine of the Finance Act, 1920 (which relates to national savings certificates), any money borrowed under that section after the commencement of this Act, and before such date as His Majesty may by Order in Council appoint may be applied for any purpose for which money may be raised under this section.
(5) The power of the Treasury under section five of the War Loan (Supplemental Provisions) Act, 1915 , to make regulations as respects money raised through the Post Office shall extend to money so raised under this section.
(6) The enactments set out in the First Schedule to this Act (which authorise the Treasury to borrow for the purposes of those enactments in any manner in which the Treasury are authorised to raise money under and for the purposes of subsection (1) of section one of the War Loan Act, 1919 ), shall have effect as if they authorised the Treasury to borrow for the said purposes in any manner in which the Treasury may raise money under this Act; any any securities created and issued under any such enactment as amended by this subsection shall be deemed for all purposes to have been created and issued under this Act.
2 Exchange of securities.
(1) The Treasury may, for the purpose of carrying out any arrangement made by them for the exchange (whether on or before maturity, and whether with or without any further payment) of any securities of His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, create and issue such other securities as the Treasury think fit.
(2) The Treasury may make rules with respect to the exchange of securities in pursuance of any such arrangement, and may by those rules provide, with the necessary modifications, for any of the matters for which provision could be made under section twenty-nine of the National Debt (Conversion) Act, 1888 , and may also by those rules apply, with the necessary modifications, any of the provisions of Part IV of that Act (whether repealed or not) which they think it expedient to apply.
(3) The Treasury may cancel any securities surrendered to them in pursuance of any such arrangement, and may also undertake to make payments, upon such terms and conditions as they think fit, to holders of securities so surrendered.
(4) A warrant given by the Bank of England or the Bank of Ireland for making any such payment shall be deemed to be a cheque within the meaning of the Bills of Exchange Act, 1882 , and shall be exempt from stamp duty.
(5) The Treasury may issue out of the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom or the growing produce thereof (hereafter in this Act referred to as ‘the Consolidated Fund’) any money required by them for the purpose of carrying out any such arrangement, and any money received by the Treasury in pursuance of any such arrangement shall be paid into the Exchequer.
3 General provisions as to securities.
(1) Securities issued under this Act shall bear such rate of interest, and be subject to such conditions as to repayment, redemption and other matters (including provision for a sinking fund), as the Treasury may determine.
(2) The money which may be raised under section one of this Act shall include any money required for the repayment of any maturing securities issued under this Act.
(3) The principal of and interest on any securities issued under this Act, and any sums required to be set aside for the purpose of any sinking fund established under this Act, and any expenses...
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