Gas Regulation Act 1920
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
Gas Regulation Act, 1920.
(10 & 11 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 28.
An Act to amend the Law with respect to the supply of Gas.
[4th August 1920]
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:
Price and Quality of Gas.
1 Power to substitute new basis of charges.
(1) The Board of Trade may, on the application of any gas undertakers, by order, provide for the repeal of any enactments or other provisions requiring the undertakers to supply gas of any particular illuminating or calorific value, and for substituting power to charge for thermal units supplied in the form of gas.
(2) An order under this section may provide for modifying the statutory or other provisions affecting the charges which may be made by the undertakers, by substituting for the standard or maximum price authorised under those provisions a standard or maximum price for each hundred thousand British thermal units (in this Act referred to as ‘a therm’).
(3) The standard or maximum price per therm fixed by the order shall be a price corresponding as nearly as may be to that fixed by those provisions for each thousand cubic feet, but with such addition as appears to the Board reasonably required in order to meet the increases (if any) due to circumstances beyond the control of, or which could not reasonably have been avoided by, the undertakers, which have occurred since the thirtieth day of June nineteen hundred and fourteen in the costs and charges of and incidental to the production and supply of gas by the undertakers; and the order may make such modifications of any provisions whereby the rate of dividend payable by the undertakers or any other payment is dependent on the price of gas supplied as appear to the Board to be necessary:
Provided that, if at any time it is shown to the satisfaction of the Board of Trade that the costs and charges of and incidental to the production and supply of gas have substantially altered from circumstances beyond the control of, or which could not reasonably have been avoided by the undertakers, the Board may, if they think fit, on the application of the undertakers or of the local authority, or, where the local authority are the undertakers, of twenty consumers, make an amending order correspondingly revising the powers of charging authorised by the original order.
(4) An order under this section—
(a ) shall prescribe the time when and the manner in which the undertakers are to give notice of the calorific value of the gas which they intend to supply (in this Act referred to as the declared calorific value), and shall require that such notice shall at the same time be published in the London, or Edinburgh, or Dublin Gazette; and
(b ) shall require the undertakers, in the case of alteration in the declared calorific value, to take at their own expense such steps as may be necessary to alter, adjust, or replace the burners in consumers' appliances in such manner as to secure that the gas can be burned with safety and efficiency, except in the case of any consumer who objects to such alteration, adjustment, or replacement by the undertakers; and
(c ) may prescribe, subject to such conditions as the Board may think necessary, the additional charge per therm which the undertakers may make in respect of gas supplied by means of prepayment. meters; and
(d ) may make such supplemental and consequential provisions as appear necessary to give full effect to the order; and
(e ) shall come into operation on such date as may be fixed by the order; and
(f ) shall have effect as if enacted in this Act.
(5) If within two years after the passing of this Act any undertakers have not applied to the Board of Trade for an order under this section, the Board of Trade may, after giving not less than three months' notice to the undertakers, make an order applying to those undertakings, which shall have the same effect as an order made on the application of the undertakers.
(6) Before making any order under this section, the Board of Trade shall, where the order is made on the application of undertakers, require the undertakers to give, and in any other case shall themselves give public notice in the London or Edinburgh or Dublin Gazette as the case may be and in such other manner as the Board may consider best adapted for informing persons affected, of the application for or proposal to make an order, and of the maximum or standard price per therm proposed, and as to the manner in which and time within which objections may be made, and shall consider any objection which may be duly made, and shall, where they think it expedient to do so, cause an inquiry to be held. The notice to be given under this section shall include notice to the local authority.
(7) The calorific value of gas means, for the purposes of this Act, the number of British thermal units (gross) produced by the combustion of one cubic foot of the gas measured at sixty degrees Fahrenheit under a pressure of thirty inches of mercury and saturated with water vapour.
2 Composition and pressure of gas to be supplied.
(1) Where an order under this Act has been made affecting any undertakers, the gas supplied by those undertakers, in addition to conforming to the conditions prescribed in the order, shall comply with the following conditions, that is to say:—
(i) it shall not contain any trace of sulphuretted hydrogen when tested in accordance with this Act;
(ii) it shall be supplied at not less than the minimum permissible pressure:
Provided that the foregoing requirements shall not apply as respects a separate supply of gas by any undertakers for industrial purposes only, but an order may impose such other conditions with regard to gas supplied by those undertakers for those purposes as appear necessary to the Board of Trade.
(2) The minimum permissible pressure shall be such pressure in any main, or in any pipe laid between the main and the meter having an internal diameter of two inches and upwards, as to balance a column of water not less than two inches in height, except as may be otherwise provided by the order relating to any undertaking, and different minima may be specified for different parts of an undertaking, or for gas of different calorific values.
(3) Where any undertakers are, at the time when an order is made with respect to them under this Act, under a statutory obligation to comply with conditions in relation to pressure which are in excess of the provisions as to pressure contained in this section, the order shall make such provisions as appear necessary to the Board of Trade for preserving these conditions, and this Act shall, in its application to those undertakers, have effect as though such last-mentioned provisions were substituted for the provisions of this section as to pressure.
(4) The Board of Trade shall, as soon as may be after the passing of this Act, cause inquiries to be held into the question whether it is necessary or desirable to prescribe any limitations of the proportion of carbon monoxide which may be supplied in gas used for domestic purposes, and into the question whether it is necessary or desirable to prescribe any limitations of the proportion of incombustible constituents which may be supplied in gas and may, if on any such inquiry it appears desirable, make one or more special orders under this Act prescribing the permissible proportion in either case, and any such special order may have effect either generally or as regards particular classes of undertakings, and the provisions of the special order shall have effect as if they were enacted in this section.
3 Restriction on power to charge for thermal units.
3. It shall not be lawful for any person to charge for the supply of gas according to the number of British thermal units supplied unless authorised to do so under this Act or by special Act of Parliament.
Testing of Gas.
4 Appointment of gas referees and examiners.
(1) The Board of Trade shall appoint three persons, at least one of whom shall be a person having practical knowledge and experience in the manufacture and supply of gas, to act as gas referees.
The Board of Trade shall also appoint a competent and impartial person to be chief gas examiner.
The gas referees and the chief gas examiner shall hold office for such time and on such conditions as the Board of Trade may direct, and may, with the consent of the Board of Trade, appoint such assistants as may be necessary for the proper discharge of their duties.
(2) Two of the gas referees shall be a quorum and at least two of the gas referees shall concur in every act or determination of the gas referees.
(3) The local authority may, unless they are themselves the undertakers, appoint a competent and impartial person to be a gas examiner, and subject to the prescription of the gas referees to test the gas and the pressure at which the gas is supplied:
Provided that—
(a ) for the purposes of this section, a gas examiner may be appointed to act on behalf of any number of local authorities, and the local authorities may enter into such arrangements as they think fit in regard to the joint appointment and employment of such gas examiner; and
(b ) any county council may, if they think fit, with the consent of any other local authority within the county, appoint a gas examiner, who shall have the same powers as if he were appointed by that local authority.
(4) Where no gas examiner is appointed by the local authority, or where the testing of gas is imperfectly attended to, quarter...
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