Roads Act 1920

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Citation1920 c. 72


Roads Act, 1920.

(10 & 11 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 72.

An Act to make provision for the collection and application of the excise duties on mechanically-propelled vehicles and on carriages; to amend the Finance Act, 1920, as respects such duties; and to amend the Motor Car Acts, 1896 and 1903, and the Development and Road Improvement Funds Act, 1909; and to make other provision with respect to roads and Vehicles used on roads, and for purposes connected therewith.

[23rd December 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:

S-1 Levying by county councils of duties on mechanically-propelled vehicles and other carriages.

1 Levying by county councils of duties on mechanically-propelled vehicles and other carriages.

(1) The duties on licences for mechanically-propelled vehicles (in this Act referred to as ‘vehicles’), imposed by section thirteen of the Finance Act, 1920 , as amended by this Act, and the excise duties on licences for carriages imposed by section four of the Customs and Inland Revenue Act, 1888 , shall, as from the first day of January, nineteen hundred and twenty-one, he levied by county councils in accordance with provisions to be made for the purpose by Order in Council.

(2) Subject to the provisions of this Act and of any Order in Council made under this section, every county council and their officers shall, as from the said first day of January, nineteen hundred and twenty-one, have within their county for the purpose of levying the duties aforesaid (in this Act referred to as ‘the said duties’), the same powers, duties, and liabilities as the Commissioners of Customs and Excise and their officers have with respect to duties of excise, and to the issue and cancellation of licences on which duties of excise are imposed, and other matters under the Acts relating to duties of excise and excise licences, and all enactments relating to those duties and to punishments and penalties in connection therewith shall apply accordingly.

(3) Every county council shall, subject to the provisions of any Order in Council made under this section, have as respects the said duties and licences the powers given by the said Acts to the Treasury for the restoration of any forfeiture and the mitigation or remission of any penalty or any part thereof.

(4) The duties levied by a county council under this section shall be paid into the Exchequer in such manner and in accordance with such directions as may be contained in any Order in Council made under this section.

(5) Provision may be made by Order in Council under this section for enabling the Minister to give such directions to county councils as he thinks necessary for securing uniformity of administration and otherwise for carrying the provisions of this Act and of any such Order into effect, and it shall be the duty of county councils to comply with any directions so given.

(6) An Order in Council made under this section may be revoked, varied, or amended, by a subsequent Order so made.

S-2 Payment out of Consolidated Fund to local taxation accounts and Road Fund.

2 Payment out of Consolidated Fund to local taxation accounts and Road Fund.

(1) There shall be charged on and issued out of the Consolidated Fund or the growing produce thereof, in accordance with the directions of the Treasury, a sum equal to the proceeds of the said duties and of all other sums paid into the Exchequer under this Act.

(2) Out of the sum to be issued out of the Consolidated Fund under this section there shall be paid in every year to the Local Taxation Account and the Local Taxation (Scotland) Account the sum of five hundred and thirty-six thousand, nine hundred and fifty-four pounds, eight shillings, and the sum of sixty-four thousand and one pounds, seventeen shillings respectively.

The sum so paid into the Local Taxation Account shall be applied in paying to the councils of counties in England and Wales sums equal to the amounts certified by the Minister of Health to have been collected by those councils respectively during the year ending on the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and nine, in respect of the duties on carriage licences, and the sum so paid into the Local Taxation (Scotland) Account shall be distributed in the same manner as the proceeds of the duties on carriage licences collected in Scotland were distributed in the financial year ending the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and twenty.

The Treasury, in conjunction as respects England and Wales with the Minister of Health, and as respects Scotland with the Secretary for Scotland, may make such adjustments in respect of the payments to be made under the foregoing provision for the financial year ending on the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and twenty-one, as are necessary for securing that local authorities shall, in respect of that year, receive the aforesaid amounts in respect of the duties on carriage licences.

(3) The balance of the sum to be issued out of the Consolidated Fund under this section, after deducting the sums to be paid to the local taxation accounts under this section, shall be paid into the Road Fund to be established under this Act.

S-3 Establishment of Road Fund.

3 Establishment of Road Fund.

(1) There shall be established for the purposes of this Act, in accordance with regulations to be made by the Treasury for the purpose, a fund to be called the Road Fund, and, subject to such regulations as may be made by the Treasury with respect to accounts and investments, the Road Fund shall be subject to the control and management of the Minister.

(2) There shall be transferred or paid to the Road Fund all moneys which on the first day of January, nineteen hundred and twenty-one, are standing to the account of the road improvement grant or are payable to that account, and all investments representing accumulations of money standing to the account of the road improvement grant shall be transferred to such persons as the Treasury may direct, and shall, upon a direction in that behalf being given by the Treasury, by virtue of this Act vest in the persons specified in the direction, and shall, subject to the provisions of any regulations made by the Treasury under the foregoing subsection, be held by those persons for the purposes of the Road Fund.

(3) Any sums received by the Minister under Part II. of the Development and Road Improvement Funds Act, 1909 , shall be paid by the Minister into the Road Fund in such manner as the Treasury may direct.

(4) There shall be paid out of the Road Fund in every year—

(a ) to every county council by whom the said duties are levied an amount equal to the expenses properly incurred by that council in accordance with directions issued by the Minister with the approval of the Treasury in or in connection with the levying of the duties, the registration of vehicles, and the issuing of licences to drivers of vehicles, and such directions may provide for advances being made to county councils from time to time as may be necessary during the year on account of any expenses so incurred by them as aforesaid:

(b ) to every local or police authority such sum as the Minister, with the approval of the Treasury, may determine to represent the amount which would, if this Act had not been passed, have been received by the authority on account of fees or charges for the licensing of mechanically-propelled hackney carriages:

(c ) such part of the expenses incurred by and in connection with the Roads Department of the Ministry of Transport, including the salaries of the staff of that Department as the Minister may from time to time, with the approval of the Treasury, determine to be expenses so incurred in the administration of this Act:

(d ) any sums paid by the Minister in respect of the salaries and establishment charges of engineers or surveyors to local authorities under subsection (2) of section seventeen of the Ministry of Transport Act, 1919 :

(e ) all expenses incurred by any other Government Department in connection with the collection of the said duties or otherwise in the administration of this Act:

and, subject to payment of the sums aforesaid and of any sums to be repaid to a local or police authority out of the Road Fund under any other provision of this Act, the moneys standing to the credit of the Road Fund shall be applied by the Minister for the purposes of Part II. of the Development and Road Improvement Funds Act, 1909, as amended by this Act:

Provided that the sums applied out of the Road Fund towards the construction of new roads, or the acquisition of land, or in respect of any loans raised for any such purpose, shall not in any year exceed one-third of the estimated amount to be paid into the Road Fund in that year, after deducting from that amount the estimated amount of the sums to be paid out of the Road Fund under the provisions of this subsection.

(5) The Minister shall cause an account to be prepared and transmitted to the Comptroller and Auditor General for examination on or before the first day of October in every year, showing the receipts into and issues out of the Road Fund in the financial year ending on the thirty-first day of March preceding, and the Comptroller and Auditor General shall certify and report on the same, and the account and report shall be laid before Parliament on or before the thirty-first day of January in the following year if Parliament be then sitting, and if Parliament be not then sitting, within...

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