Physical Training and Recreation Act 1937
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1937 c. 46 |
| Year | 1937 |
Physical Training and Recreation Act, 1937
(1 Edw. 8 & 1 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 46.
An Act to provide for the development of facilities for, and the encouragement of, physical training and recreation, and to facilitate the establishment of centres for social activities.
[13th July 1937]
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:—
1 National Advisory Councils.
(1) There shall continue to be two National Advisory Councils for Physical Training and Recreation, the one for England and Wales and the other for Scotland, consisting in each case of such persons as the Prime Minister may from time to time appoint, whose principal duty it shall be to investigate, and advise His Majesty's Government with regard to, matters relating to the maintenance and improvement of the physical well-being of the people by means of exercise and recreation.
Such a council is hereafter in this Act referred to as a ‘National Council.’
(2) A National Council may appoint committees to assist them in the discharge of their functions and may appoint as members of any such committee, or authorise any such committee to co-opt as members thereof, persons who are not members of the Council.
2 Local committees and subcommittees.
(1) The National Council for England and Wales shall, so soon as may be, make, and may from time to time vary, arrangements for the establishment throughout their area of local committees consisting of persons representing local education authorities for higher education, and other local authorities, and voluntary organisations promoting objects which are objects of this Act, and other persons who have special knowledge and experience of matters with which the local committees will be concerned.
(2) Any such arrangements shall empower a local committee to delegate or refer matters arising out of their functions to sub-committees, and to appoint as members of a sub-committee, or authorise a sub-committee to co-opt as members thereof, members of local authorities and other persons who are not members of the committee.
(3) The functions of a local committee shall be—
(i) to review the existing facilities for physical training and recreation in the various localities within their area, to direct public interest to the value of such training and recreation and to encourage the promotion of local schemes for the provision of further and better facilities therefor;
(ii) to examine and consider any proposals which may be put before them for the provision of such facilities as aforesaid, and any application for financial assistance by way of a grant under this Act which may be made to them; and
(iii) to transmit any such application with their recommendations thereon to the grants committee referred to in the next succeeding section.
(4) A local authority may, either free of charge or on such other terms as may be agreed, place at the disposal of a local committee, or of a sub-committee of such a committee, any offices or staff belonging to or employed by the authority.
3 Powers of Board of Education.
(1) The Board of Education (hereafter in this Act referred to as ‘the Board’) may, in accordance with recommendations made by the committee appointed for the purposes of this Act by the Prime Minister (hereafter in this Act referred to as ‘the grants committee’) and in accordance with arrangements approved by the Treasury, make grants—
( a ) towards the expenses of a local authority or local voluntary organisation in providing, whether as a part of wider activities or not, or in aiding the provision of, facilities for physical training and recreation, including, but without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing words, the provision and equipment of gymnasiums, playing fields, swimming baths, bathing places, holiday camps and camping sites, and other buildings and premises for physical training and recreation;
( b ) towards the expenses of a local authority or local voluntary organisation in respect of the training and supply of teachers and leaders; and
( c ) to the funds of any national voluntary organisation having such objects as aforesaid, either in aid of its work as a whole, or in aid of any specified branch of its work.
The powers of the Board under paragraph ( a ) of this subsection shall not extend to the making of a grant in aid of the maintenance of such facilities as aforesaid, except that, if the Board after considering a recommendation of the grants committee certify that the circumstances of a local voluntary organisation are such that special hardship or difficulty would be occasioned if such a grant were not made to it, the Board may make such a grant.
(2) The Board when making a grant under the preceding subsection may attach thereto such conditions, including, in the case of a grant to a voluntary association, conditions for securing the continuity of the undertaking assisted, as the Board may think proper.
(3) The Board, after consultation with the National Council for England and Wales, may, on the recommendation of the grants committee and with the approval of the Treasury, take steps for disseminating knowledge with respect to the value of physical training and recreation.
4 Extension of powers of local authorities.
(1) A local authority may acquire, lay out, provide with suitable buildings and otherwise equip, and maintain lands, whether situate within or without their area, for the purpose of gymnasiums, playing fields, holiday camps or camping sites, or for the purpose of centres for the use of clubs, societies or organisations having athletic, social or educational objects, and may manage those lands and buildings themselves, either with or without a charge for the use thereof or admission thereto, or may let them, or any portion thereof, at a nominal or other rent to any person, club, society or organisation for use for any of the purposes aforesaid.
The authority may also provide and, where necessary, arrange for the training of, such wardens, teachers and leaders as they may deem requisite for securing that effective use is made of the facilities for exercise, recreation and social activities so provided.
(2) Section seventy of the Public Health Act, 1925 (which relates to the use of public offices for entertainments and the like), shall apply in relation to any premises provided by a local authority under the preceding subsection as if those premises were offices for the transaction of business, and as if any local authority as defined by this Act were a local authority for the purposes of the said section seventy.
(3) A county council may provide public swimming baths and bathing places under Part VIII of the Public Health Act, 1936 , and, accordingly, in sections two hundred and twenty-one to two hundred and twenty-nine of that Act any reference to a local authority or their district shall, in relation to public swimming baths and bathing places, be construed as including a reference to a county council or their county.
(4) A local authority may contribute towards expenses incurred by another local authority, whether under this or any other Act, or by a voluntary organisation, in providing or maintaining within the area of the contributing authority, or on a site where it will benefit any of the inhabitants of that area, anything mentioned in subsection (1) of this section, or a swimming bath or bathing place.
(5) Section sixty-nine of the Public Health Act, 1925, and so much of the Museums and Gymnasiums Act, 1891 , as relates to gymnasiums, shall cease to have effect and any property held by a local authority for the purposes of the enactments thus repealed shall, without any necessity for formal appropriation, be held by them for the purposes of this section.
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