Local Government (Records) Act 1962
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1962 c. 56 |
Local Government (Records) Act, 1962
(10 & 11 Eliz. 2) CHAPTER 56
An Act to amend the law relating to the functions of local authorities with respect to records in written or other form.
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 Power to promote adequate use of records.
(1) A local authority may do all such things as appear to it necessary or expedient for enabling adequate use to be made of records under its control, and in relation to such records may in particular—
(a ) make provision for enabling persons, with or without charge and subject to such conditions as the authority may determine, to inspect the records and to make or obtain copies thereof,
(b ) prepare, or procure or assist in the preparation of, indexes and guides to and calendars and summaries of the records;
(c ) publish, or procure or assist in the publication of, the records or any index or guide to or calendar or summary of the records;
(d ) hold exhibitions of the records and arrange for the delivery of explanatory lectures, with or without charging for admission to such exhibitions or lectures;
(e ) direct that the records be temporarily entrusted to other persons for exhibition or study.
(2) Nothing in subsection (1) above shall be taken to authorise the doing of any act which infringes copyright or contravenes conditions subject to which records are under the control of a local authority.
2 Acquisition and deposit of records.
(1) A local authority to which this subsection applies may—
(a ) by agreement acquire by way of purchase records which, or (in the case of a collection) the majority of which, appear to the authority to be of local interest;
(b ) accept the gift of records which, or (in the case of a collection) the majority of which, appear to the authority to be of general or local interest.
(2) A local authority to which this subsection applies may accept the deposit of records—
(a ) which appear to the authority to be of general or local interest; or
(b ) which are the subject of an arrangement made under subsection (4) below.
(3) A local authority may accept the deposit of records authorised to be deposited with it by any enactment other than this section.
(4) A local authority other than a parish council or parish meeting may arrange to deposit any records under its control with an authority to which subsections (1) and (2) above apply or, if the Minister of Housing and Local Government consents, with any other person.
(5) Where by virtue of this section records are under the control of a local authority in relation to which a provision of the following sections applies, namely, section two hundred and seventy-nine of the Local Government Act, 1933, and section one hundred and sixty-nine of the London Government Act, 1939 (which sections regulate the custody of certain records) that provision shall apply as respects those records notwithstanding that apart from this subsection it would not so apply.
(6) Subsections (1) and (2) above apply to the council of every county or county borough and to the council of any county district or metropolitan borough specified in an order made in that behalf by the Minister of Housing and Local Government.
3 Power to appoint subcommittees.
3. A committee appointed under section eighty-five or ninety-one of the Local Government Act, 1933, or section fifty-nine of the London Government Act, 1939, and having functions relating to records may appoint a sub-committee and delegate to it any of those functions:
Provided that if fewer than two-thirds of the members of the sub-committee are members of the local authority which appointed the main committee, or, where that is a joint committee, of one or other of the local authorities which appointed it, the sub-committee shall be advisory only.
4 Financial.
(1) A local authority may contribute a sum equal to the whole or a part of any such expenses as the following, that is to say—
(a ) as respects records under the authority's control, expenses which have been incurred by any person in doing, by arrangement with the authority, anything relating to the records which the authority itself was empowered to do;
(b ) as respects records not under the authority's control, being records which in the opinion of the authority are nevertheless of local interest,—
(i) expenses which have been incurred by any person in doing any such thing relating to the records as the authority is empowered by subsection (1) of section one above to do in relation to records under its control;
(ii) expenses which have been incurred by any person in looking after...
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