Counter-Inflation (Temporary Provisions) Act 1972
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1972 c. 74 |
| Year | 1972 |
Counter-Inflation(Temporary Provisions)Act 1972
1972 CHAPTER 74
An Act to authorise measures to counter inflation.
[30th November 1972]
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:—
1 Duration of section 2.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, section 2 of this Act shall cease to have effect at the expiration of a period of ninety days beginning with the date on which this Act is passed.
(2) Her Majesty may by Order in Council made not later than thirty days before the date on which the said section 2 would otherwise cease to have effect, substitute for the ninety days mentioned in subsection (1) above such longer period, not exceeding one hundred and fifty days, as may be specified in the Order.
(3) An Order in Council under subsection (2) above shall cease to have effect at the expiration of a period of twenty-eight days beginning with the date on which it is made, unless before the end of that period the Order has been approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament.
2 Prices, pay, dividends and rents.
(1) Prices or charges to which this section applies, and which are for transactions effected by a person at a time when this section applies to the prices or charges, shall not exceed the prices or charges for transactions of the same description effected by the same person in the course of business before 6th November 1972.
(2) An employer shall not pay remuneration to which this section applies for work for any period during which this section applies to the remuneration at a rate which exceeds the rate of remuneration paid by him for the same kind of work before 6th November 1972.
(3) A company to which this section applies shall not declare an ordinary dividend which exceeds the corresponding ordinary dividend declared by that company in the previous calendar year, and shall not declare an ordinary dividend which does not correspond to any ordinary dividend declared in the previous calendar year.
(4) The appropriate Minister may by order provide for preventing increases of rent over rent payable before 6th November 1972.
(5) The appropriate Minister may apply this section—
(a ) to any prices for the sale of goods, and to any charges for the performance of services, including charges for the application of any process to goods, being prices or charges in the course of business, and
(b ) to remuneration under contracts of employment for any kind of work to be performed wholly or substantially within the United Kingdom, or on British ships or aircraft, and
(c ) to companies incorporated under the law of the United Kingdom,
and where subsection (1) of this section, as applied to any prices or charges, is contravened, the liability for the contravention attaches to the person selling the goods or performing the services.
(6) The power conferred by subsection (5) above shall be exercisable by order, or by notice given to the person, or each of the persons, to whom this section is to apply.
(7) There is no contravention of subsections (1), (2) or (3) of this section if what has been done is authorised by the order or notice applying this section, or by the consent of a Minister given in writing.
3 Existing contracts of employment: modification while section 2 is in force.
(1) The terms of any agreement which was entered into by an employer and an employee before 6th November 1972, and which governs the rate of remuneration both for work before that date and for work when section 2 of this Act is in force, shall be modified in accordance with subsection (2) below.
(2) The rate at which remuneration is payable under the agreement to the employee for work for any period when section 2 of this Act is in force shall not exceed the highest rate at which remuneration was payable under the agreement to him for the same kind of work before 6th November 1972.
(3) This section shall not apply to an increase in remuneration which is in respect of age, or length of service, or length of service in employment of a particular kind, or in employment in a particular grade.
(4) This section shall not apply to remuneration for work other than work to be performed wholly or substantially within the United Kingdom or on British ships or aircraft.
4 Power to obtain information.
(1) The appropriate Minister may for the purposes of this Act by notice require any person engaged or employed in any business, or any organisation of employers, or any officer of an organisation of employers—
(a ) to furnish to the appropriate Minister such estimates, returns or other information as may be specified or described in the notice, or
(b ) to produce to an officer of the appropriate Minister, duly authorised for the purpose, any documents so specified or described,
and may in the notice specify the way in which the notice is to be complied with and, in the case of a notice relating to documents, the facilities to be afforded for making extracts from, or taking copies of, the documents.
(2) No person shall be compelled, in complying with any such notice, to give any information which he could not be compelled to give in evidence in proceedings before the High Court.
5 Offences.
(1) If a person contravenes any of the provisions of section 2 of this Act he shall be liable—
(a ) on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding 400, and
(b ) on conviction on indictment to a fine.
(2) If an organisation of workers or organisation of employers, or any other organisation or person, takes, or threatens to take, any action with a view to compel, induce or influence a person to contravene any of the provisions of section 2 of this Act, he shall be liable—
(a ) on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding 400, and
(b ) on conviction on indictment to a fine.
(3) A person who—
(a ) refuses or wilfully neglects to comply with a notice under section 4 of this Act, or
(b ) in furnishing any estimate, return or other information in compliance with such a notice makes any statement which he knows to be false in a material particular, or recklessly makes any statement which is false in a material particular, or
(c ) with intent to deceive, produces in compliance with such a notice a document which is false in a material particular,
shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding 100.
(4) Where an offence is alleged to have been committed under this Act by an organisation of workers or organisation of employers, or by any other organisation, being an unincorporated body—
(a ) proceedings for the offence shall be brought in the name of that body (and not in that of any of its members),
(b ) for the purpose of any such proceedings any rules of court relating to the service of documents shall have effect as if that body were a corporation, and
(c ) any fine imposed on conviction shall be payable out of the funds of that body.
(5) Where an offence mentioned in subsection...
To continue reading
Request your trial