Coal Act 1938
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1938 c. 52 |
Coal Act, 1938.
(1 & 2 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 52.
An Act to make provision for the acquisition of the property in all unworked coal and mines of coal and in certain associated minerals, and of certain associated property and rights in land, by a Commission with power of management thereover; for amending the enactments relating to facilities for the working of minerals; for empowering the commission to promote a reduction in the number of coal-mining undertakings; for continuing Part I of the Coal Mines Act, 1930, and for amending the provisions thereof with respect to committees of investigation; for enabling land to be acquired compulsorily for the purposes of the miners welfare committee; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[29th July 1938]
B E 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:—
Part I.
Unification of Coal Mining Royalties.
The Coal Commission.
1 Constitution of Coal Commission.
(1) There shall be a Coal Commission (in this Act called ‘the Commission’) to exercise and perform the powers and duties set out in this Act.
(2) The Commission shall be a body corporate by the name of ‘the Coal Commission’, with perpetual succession and a common seal, and with power to hold land without licence in mortmain.
(3) The provisions of the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect with respect to the constitution and procedure of the Commission.
2 General provisions as to functions of the Commission under Part I.
(1) It shall be the duty of the Commission to exercise their functions as owners of the fee simple in coal and mines of coal, and of the property and rights to be acquired by them therewith, in such manner as they may think best for promoting the interests, efficiency, and better organisation of the coal-mining industry.
(2) The Commission shall not themselves engage in the business of coal-mining or carry on any operations for coal-mining purposes, other than searching and boring for coal, but shall grant leases for those purposes:
Provided that the Commission may carry on any operations for those purposes which may be requisite for preserving in good order premises that are not for the time being subject to a coal-mining lease.
(3) The Board of Trade may give to the Commission general directions as to the exercise by the Commission of their functions under this Part of this Act in relation to matters appearing to the Board to affect the national interest, including all matters affecting the safety of the working of coal, and the Commission shall give effect to any such directions:
Provided that nothing in this subsection shall be construed as conferring on the Board any power to give a direction inconsistent with any provisions of the Coal Mines Act, 1911 , or of any other enactment relating to the control or management of a mine within the meaning of that Act, or of any regulations made under that Act or any such other enactment.
Unification of ownership of coal in the hands of the Commission.
3 Commission to acquire fee simple in coal.
(1) The Commission shall acquire in accordance with the provisions of this Part of this Act the fee simple in all coal and mines of coal, together with such property and rights annexed thereto and such rights to withdraw support as are hereinafter mentioned, subject to such servitudes, restrictive covenants and other matters adversely affecting any of the said coal or mines as are hereinafter mentioned, and subject to the provisions of this Part of this Act with respect to the retention of interests arising under coal-mining leases and of certain other interests.
(2) During the period between the first day of January nineteen hundred and thirty-nine (in this Act referred to as the ‘valuation date’) and the first day of July nineteen hundred and forty-two (in this Act referred to as the ‘vesting date’) all coal and mines of coal shall be held as if all the existing owners thereof had, in respect of all their interests therein other than retained interests and with full capacity so to do, entered into a contract on the valuation date for the sale thereof to the Commission, at a price to be ascertained by valuation, with provision for completion of the contract on the vesting date.
(3) On the vesting date all coal and mines of coal as existing at that date shall vest in the Commission for a title comprising all interests then subsisting in any such coal or mine other than retained interests.
(4) In this Part of this Act the expression ‘coal’—
(a ) means bituminous coal, cannel coal and anthracite; but
(b ) shall, in a case in which minerals or substances other than bituminous coal, cannel coal or anthracite are comprised in a lease subsisting at the valuation date which confers a right to work and carry away both that coal or anthracite and those other minerals or substances, include those other minerals or substances, so however that the Commission may, by direction given in the prescribed manner before the expiration of six months from the valuation date, exclude any such other minerals or substances from the operation of this paragraph, and in the case of any such other minerals or substances which in the opinion of the Commission are or would normally be worked by surface workings and not in association with that coal or anthracite, the Commission shall, if any person interested therein makes application to the Commission in that behalf before the expiration of six months from the valuation date, by direction exclude them from the operation of this paragraph; and
(c ) except in the case of references to the making merchantable or disposing of coal, means coal that is unworked, that is to say, not so severed as to have become a chattel.
4 Property and rights with which, and matters subject to which, coal is to be acquired.
(1) The premises comprised in the contract relating to any coal or mine referred to in subsection (2) of the last preceding section shall be deemed to include all property and rights, other than rights to withdraw support or rights created by working facilities orders, that would pass with that coal or mine under a conveyance thereof such as is specified in Part I of the Second Schedule to this Act taking effect on the valuation date, and all such property and rights (in this Act referred to as ‘acquired property and rights’) shall be held during the interim period accordingly.
(2) The said contract shall be deemed to have been for a sale subject to all matters subject to which the premises comprised therein would pass on such a conveyance as aforesaid.
(3) On the vesting date there shall vest in the Commission with any coal or mine of coal—
(a ) all property and rights, other than rights to withdraw support or rights created by working facilities orders, that would pass with that coal or mine under a conveyance thereof such as is specified in Part I of the Second Schedule to this Act taking effect on the vesting date; and
(b ) such right, if any, to withdraw support as is under the provisions of Part II of the Second Schedule to this Act to vest therewith.
(4) The vesting of any coal, mine of coal, property or rights in the Commission shall take effect subject to all matters subject to which those premises would pass on such a conveyance as is mentioned in the last preceding subsection.
5 Retention of certain leasehold and other interests.
(1) Except as provided by subsection (2) of this section, interests in coal or a mine of coal that arise under a coal-mining lease shall be retained interests.
(2) The following interests, that is to say—
(a ) interests arising under a coal-mining lease in coal or a mine of coal which is sub-demised by a coal-mining lease derived out of that lease, or which is, by virtue of any other form of disposition taking effect directly or indirectly out of that lease, held in like manner as if it had been so sub-demised; and
(b ) interests arising under a coal-mining lease where neither the lessee nor any person claiming under him is a person carrying on the business of coal-mining and having a substantial beneficial interest in the exercise of the rights conferred by the lease;
shall not be retained interests unless the Commission so direct.
(3) Any direction to be given for the purposes of the last preceding subsection shall be given by means of a notice in writing served on the lessee under the lease under which the interests in question arise, and must be given not later than the expiration of six months from the valuation date, or, if later, from the time when the Commission have received notice of the subsistence of that lease and also, in a case to which paragraph (a )of that subsection applies, of the sub-demise or other disposition.
Where a direction might be given both as respects interests arising under a lease and as respects interests arising under a lease derived out of that lease, a direction shall not be given as...
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