Forestry Act 1945
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1945 c. 35 |
| Year | 1945 |
Forestry Act, 1945,
(8 & 9 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 35.
An Act to make provision for the reconstitution of the Forestry Commission and as to the exercise of the functions of the Forestry Commissioners, the acquisition of land for forestry purposes and the management, use and disposal of land so acquired; and in connection with the matters aforesaid to amend the Forestry Acts, 1919 to 1927, and certain other enactments relating to the Forestry Commissioners.
[15th June 1945]
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 Reconstitution of Forestry Commission.
(1) The Forestry Commission shall consist of a chairman and not more than nine other Commissioners appointed by His Majesty by warrant under the sign manual, and every Commissioner shall hold and vacate office in accordance with the terms of the instrument under which he is appointed, and a Commissioner who vacates office shall be eligible for reappointment.
(2) At least three of the said Commissioners (hereafter in this Act referred to as ‘the Commissioners’) shall be persons who have special knowledge and experience of forestry and at least one of the Commissioners shall be a person who has scientific attainments and a technical knowledge of forestry.
(3) A person shall be disqualified for being appointed or being a Commissioner so long as he is a member of the Commons House of Parliament.
(4) The foregoing provisions of this section shall not affect any Commissioner holding office at the date of the passing of this Act, not being a person disqualified by the last foregoing subsection, and any such Commissioner shall continue to hold office for the remainder of the term for which he was appointed.
(5) There shall be paid to such of the Commissioners as may be determined by the Ministers with the approval of the Treasury such salaries or other emoluments as may be so determined.
(6) The Commissioners may, subject to such limit as to number as the Treasury may determine, appoint and employ such officers and servants for the purposes of the Forestry Acts, 1919 to 1945, as the Commissioners think necessary, and the Commissioners may remove any officer or servant so appointed or employed, and there shall be paid to such officers and servants such salaries or remuneration as the Ministers may, with the approval of the Treasury, determine.
2 Exercise of functions of Commissioners to be subject to direction of Ministers.
2. The Commissioners shall, in exercising their functions under the Forestry Acts, 1919 to 1945, comply with such directions as may be given to them by the Ministers:
Provided that this section shall not affect any functions exercisable by virtue of any Regulation in force under the Emergency Powers (Defence) Acts, 1939 and 1940, by the Minister of Supply instead of by the Commissioners, so long as those functions remain so exercisable.
3 Appointment of committees for England, Scotland and Wales and delegation of functions thereto.
(1) The Commissioners shall by order appoint committees for England, Scotland and Wales, respectively which shall consist partly of members who are Commissioners or officers of the Commissioners and partly of members, not exceeding three in number, who are not Commissioners or such officers, and the Commissioners may delegate, subject to such restrictions or conditions as they think fit, any of their functions to a committee so appointed.
(2) An order under this section appointing a committee shall make provision as to the constitution (including the terms of office of the members), quorum and procedure of that committee, and there shall be paid to the members of any such committee who are not Commissioners or officers of the Commissioners such travelling and other allowances as the Ministers may, with the approval of the Treasury, determine, and all such allowances shall be defrayed out of the Forestry Fund.
(3) Section five of the Forestry Act, 1919 (which provides for the delegation of functions by the Commissioners to assistant commissioners appointed for England and Wales and for Scotland respectively), and section six of the said Act (which provides for the establishment of consultative committees for England, Scotland and Wales respectively) shall cease to have effect.
4 Transfer to Minister of Commissioners' power to acquire land.
(1) The provisions of the Forestry Act, 1919, relating to the acquisition of land for forestry purposes shall cease to have effect, and the following provisions of this section shall have effect in lieu thereof.
(2) The appropriate Minister may by agreement acquire, whether by way of purchase, lease or exchange, or may purchase compulsorily, any land which in his opinion is suitable for afforestation or for purposes connected with forestry or must necessarily be acquired together with any such land as aforesaid, and for the purposes of such acquisition the enactments referred to in Part I of the First Schedule to this Act shall be incorporated with this section to such extent and subject to such modifications and adaptations as are specified in the said Part I.
(3) The powers of the appropriate Minister under the last foregoing subsection to acquire land compulsorily shall be exercised by means of an order made in accordance with Part II of the First Schedule to this Act, and Part III of the said Schedule shall apply with respect to the validity and date of operation of any such order:
Provided that, if an objection to any such order is duly made in accordance with the said Part II and is not withdrawn before the order is made, the order shall be provisional only and shall not have effect until it is confirmed by Parliament, and the said Part III shall not apply to the order.
(4) An order made under the last foregoing subsection may authorise the compulsory purchase of any land belonging to the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty incorporated by the National Trust Act, 1907 , not-withstanding that such land is held inalienably by that Trust under section twenty-one of the said Act or section eight of the National Trust Act, 1939 .
(5) All land vested in the Commissioners at the date of the passing of this Act is hereby vested in the appropriate Minister by virtue of this section and shall be held by him subject to the same terms and conditions as it was held by the Commissioners, and any references to the Commissioners in any conveyance, lease or other instrument affecting such land shall be construed as references to the appropriate Minister:
Provided that all such land shall, until the appropriate Minister otherwise directs, be deemed for the purposes of the following provisions of this section and of section six of this Act to have been placed at the disposal of the Commissioners.
(6) The Commissioners may manage, plant and otherwise use for the purpose of the exercise of their functions under the Forestry Acts, 1919 to 1945, any land vested in or acquired by the appropriate Minister by or under this section and for the time being placed at their disposal by him, and any timber (within the meaning of section three of the Forestry Act, 1919) produced on any such land shall belong to the Commissioners.
(7) The appropriate Minister may—
(a ) manage and use for such purposes as he thinks fit any land vested in or acquired by him by or under this section which is not for the time being placed at the disposal of the Commissioners for the purpose of the exercise of their functions aforesaid;
(b ) let any land vested in or acquired by him as aforesaid or grant any interest or right in or over such land;
(c ) sell any land vested in or acquired by him as aforesaid which in his opinion is not needed or ought not to be used for the purpose of afforestation or any purpose connected with forestry, or exchange any such land for other land more suitable for any such purpose, and pay and receive money for equality of exchange.
(8) Any power to manage and use land conferred by this section shall, without prejudice to the generality of that power, include power to erect buildings or execute works on the land.
(9) Subsection (4) of section seven of the Forestry Act, 1919 (which empowers the Commissioners to require the grant of haulage facilities subject to a right of appeal to the Development Commissioners) shall have effect as if for the references to the Development Commissioners there were substituted references to the appropriate Minister.
(10) In consequence of the foregoing provisions of this section the enactments hereinafter mentioned shall have effect subject to the following amendments:—
(a ) the references to the Forestry Commissioners in section one of the Forestry (Transfer of Woods) Act, 1923 (which provides for the transfer of property to the Forestry Commissioners) shall be construed as references to the appropriate Minister, except that the first reference in paragraph (d ) of subsection (1) of that section shall be construed as including a reference both to the Forestry Commissioners and to the appropriate Minister, and the reference in the said paragraph (d ) to property...
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