Local Government (Clerks) Act 1931
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
Local Government (Clerks) Act, 1931
(21 & 22 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 45.
An Act to amend the law relating to the offices of clerk of the county council and clerk of the peace of counties and to persons holding those offices, and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[31st July 1931]
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:—
The Offices of Clerk of the County Council and Clerk of the Peace.
1 Offices of clerk of county council and clerk of peace to be separate offices.
1. Subject to the provisions of this Act, the office of clerk of the county council and the office of clerk of the peace of the county shall in every county be distinct and separate offices, and so much of section eighty-three of the Local Government Act, 1888, as requires the clerk of the peace of a county to be also the clerk of the county council shall cease to have effect, but any person holding office as clerk of the peace and county council of any county immediately before the passing of this Act shall continue to hold both those offices notwithstanding the separation thereof.
2 Appointment.
(1) On a vacancy occurring in the office of clerk of a county council, a person to fill the vacancy shall be appointed by the county council.
(2) Before appointing any person to fill the office of clerk of the county council, the council shall ascertain whether he would be willing to accept the office of clerk of the peace of the county, and shall have regard to his fitness to perform the duties of that office, and shall for that purpose consult the chairman, or, in his absence, the deputy chairman, of quarter sessions for the county.
(3) On the occurrence of any vacancy in the office of clerk of the peace of the county, the county council shall give notice in writing to the court of quarter sessions for the county, notifying that court whether the person appointed to be clerk of the county council would be willing to accept the office of clerk of the peace.
(4) On a vacancy occurring in the office of clerk of the peace of a county, a person to fill the vacancy shall, subject as hereinafter provided, be appointed by the court of quarter sessions for the county:
Provided that, if notice has been given under the last foregoing subsection that the clerk of the county council would be willing to accept the office of clerk of the peace of the county, he shall, unless the court of quarter sessions, within the period of six months next after the vacancy occurs or within such further period as the Secretary of State may, on the application of that court, by order allow, appoints some other person to be clerk of the peace, be deemed as from the expiration of that period to have been appointed clerk of the peace by that court.
3 Salaries and remuneration.
(1) Subject as hereinafter provided, every county council shall pay out of the county fund—
(a ) to the clerk of the county council such salary as may from time to time be determined by the county council, subject to the approval of the Minister; and
(b ) to the clerk of the peace of the county such salary as may from time to time be determined by the court of quarter sessions or, in the event of an appeal from any such determination being made to the Secretary of State by the county council or by any clerk of the peace holding office at the date of the determination, by the Secretary of State:
Provided that, so long as any person, being a person who was holding office as clerk of the peace and county council immediately before the passing of this Act, continues to hold those offices, a single salary shall be payable to him in respect of both offices and that salary shall continue to be regulated by any order made in that behalf by the Secretary of State under the enactments repealed by this Act and in force at the passing of this Act, so, however, that—
(i) the amount fixed as the salary of a clerk by any such order shall, as from the date of the passing of this Act, be reduced by such amount, if any, as may within six months after that date be determined by the Secretary of State, after considering any recommendation made by the joint committee, to represent provision made by the order for the remuneration of any deputy clerk or of any person in the employment of the clerk for the purposes of any office held by him as such clerk; and
(ii) any such order may be varied by the Secretary of State upon receiving at any time a recommendation from the joint committee that the amount of the salary should be reconsidered.
(2) The salary paid to a clerk of the county council shall be deemed to be remuneration for all business which he may, by reason of his office as clerk of the county council, be called on to perform, and all fees and costs payable to the clerk of the county council, except any fees and costs expressly excluded when his salary is determined, shall, in accordance with such directions as may be given by the county council, he accounted for and paid to the county fund.
In this subsection the expression ‘fees and costs’ does not include any sums payable to the clerk of a county council in respect of the registration of electors or as charges or fees in respect of services and expenses in connection with the conduct of parliamentary elections, except such as are payable to him for his personal remuneration under section fifteen of the Representation of the People Act, 1918 , as registration expenses, or under section twenty-nine of that Act.
(3) The salary paid to a clerk of the peace shall be deemed to be remuneration for all business which he may by reason of his office as clerk of the peace be called on to perform, and all fees and costs payable to the clerk of the peace, except any fees and costs expressly excluded when his salary is determined, shall, in accordance with such directions as may be given by the county council, be accounted for and paid to the county fund; and in the enactments relating to such fees and costs references to the joint committee shall be substituted for references to the quarter sessions and the local authority respectively, only as respects cases where the offices of clerk of the peace and of the county council continue to be held by a person holding office as clerk of the peace and county council immediately before the passing of this Act:
Provided that the provisions of this subsection shall be without prejudice to the provisions of section eleven of the Stipendiary Magistrates Act, 1858 (which relate to the appointment and remuneration of deputies for the purpose of a second court of quarter sessions).
(4) For the purposes of the last two foregoing subsections, the salary payable to any person who was holding office as clerk of the peace and county council immediately before the passing of this Act in respect of both these offices shall be deemed to be payable to him in respect of each office.
4 Tenure and vacation of office.
(1) If any person holding office both as clerk of the county council and as clerk of the peace of any county voluntarily resigns either of those offices he shall, whether appointed before or after the passing of this Act, be deemed thereby to vacate the other office.
(2) The office of clerk of a county council and the office of clerk of the peace of a county shall be vacant upon the holder of the office becoming incapable, by reason of permanent ill-health or infirmity of mind or body, of discharging with efficiency the duties of his office or, if he is the holder of both offices, of either office, or, subject as hereinafter provided, upon his attaining the age of sixty-five years, whichever event first occurs:
Provided that the office of a clerk shall not, by reason of the foregoing provisions of this section, be vacated upon his attaining the age of sixty-five years—
(a ) in the case of a clerk of the peace who is not also the holder of the office of clerk of the county council;
(b ) in the case of a clerk appointed before the passing of this Act, unless and until on attaining that age or at any time thereafter he is required to vacate office by notice in writing from the joint committee;
(c ) in the case of a clerk appointed after the passing of this Act who is the holder of both offices, if and so long as the period of each of these offices is, with his consent, extended by resolutions passed for the purpose by the authorities having power under this Act to fill vacancies in those offices;
(d ) in the case of a clerk of the county council appointed after the passing of this Act who is not also the holder of the office of clerk of the peace, if and so long as the period of his office is, with his consent, extended by a resolution passed for the purpose by the county council.
No such resolution as is mentioned in paragraph (c ) or (d ) of the foregoing proviso shall extend the period of office of any clerk for more than one year at a time.
(3) Where the office of clerk of the county council or the office of clerk of the peace of the county has been vacated by any person by reason of the foregoing provisions of this section, that person shall not be eligible for reappointment to either of those offices.
(4) The provisions of subsection (3) of section six of the Local Government and other Officers' Superannuation Act, 1922 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act of 1922’) except the second proviso to that subsection, shall, as respects clerks of county councils and clerks of the peace of counties cease to have effect, and references in the said second proviso to an ‘extended period’ shall be...
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