Water (Scotland) Act 1946

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Citation1946 c. 42


Water (Scotland) Act, 1946

(9 & 10 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 42.

An Act to make provision for the conservation of water resources and for water supplies in Scotland and for purposes connected therewith.

[26th March 1946]

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:—

I CENTRAL AUTHORITY.

PART I.

CENTRAL AUTHORITY.

S-1 Duty of Secretary of State in relation to water.

1 Duty of Secretary of State in relation to water.

1. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of State to promote the conservation of the water resources of Scotland and the provision by local authorities of adequate water supplies throughout Scotland, and to secure the collection, preparation, publication and dissemination of information and statistics relating to such water resources and water supplies and to appoint an advisory committee to advise the Secretary of State on these matters.

S-2 Power to require local water authority to carry out surveys and formulate proposals.

2 Power to require local water authority to carry out surveys and formulate proposals.

2. The Secretary of State may require any local water authority to—

a ) carry out a survey of the existing consumption of and demand for water supplies in the area where they are supplying or are authorised to supply water and of the water resources in or available for that area
b ) prepare an estimate of the future water supply requirements of that area
c ) formulate proposals for meeting the existing or future water supply requirements of that area, including proposals for the joint use with any other water authority of any existing or proposed new source of water supply
d ) submit a report on any of the aforesaid matters to the Secretary of State within such time as he may specify.
S-3 Power of Secretary of State to require records and information from persons abstracting water.

3 Power of Secretary of State to require records and information from persons abstracting water.

(1) The Secretary of State may make regulations requiring any class of persons to keep such records and furnish such returns as to the quantity and quality of water abstracted by them from any source and as to such other matters relating to the source as may be prescribed by the regulations:

Provided that—

(a ) the regulations shall not apply in a case where water is abstracted by an individual for his domestic or agricultural purposes only;

(b ) in a case where the Secretary of State is satisfied that in all the circumstances compliance with any requirement of the regulations is impracticable or undue expense would be thereby incurred, he may direct that that requirement need not be complied with.

(2) The regulations may provide for the inspection of any records kept thereunder and of any apparatus used for the purpose thereof and for the taking of copies of and extracts from any such records and may confer rights of entry for the purpose of exercising any of the powers aforesaid and the section of this Act relating to entry of premises shall apply to any such right of entry.

(3) Any person who fails to comply with any requirement of the regulations shall be guilty of an offence against this Act.

S-4 Facilities for obtaining information as to underground water.

4 Facilities for obtaining information as to underground water.

(1) Any person who proposes to sink, for the purpose of searching for or abstracting water, a well or borehole intended to reach a depth of more than fifty feet below the surface, shall, before he begins to do so, give to the Committee of the Privy Council for Scientific and Industrial Research notice in writing of his intention to do so, and shall keep a journal of the progress of the work, which shall include measurements of the strata passed through, and all the levels at which water is struck and subsequently rests and shall allow any person authorised by the said Committee for the purpose, on the production of some duly authenticated document showing his authority, at all reasonable times—

(a ) to have free access to any such well or borehole;

(b ) to inspect the well or borehole and the material excavated therefrom;

(c ) to take specimens of such material and of water abstracted from the well or borehole; and

(d ) to inspect and take copies of or extracts from the journal required to be kept under this section.

(2) The person sinking any such well or borehole shall, on completion or abandonment of the work, send a complete copy of the journal kept under the last foregoing subsection to the said Committee, and shall also send to the Committee particulars of any test made, before such completion or abandonment, of the flow of water, specifying the rate of flow throughout the test and the duration of the test, and also, where practicable, specifying the water levels during the test and thereafter until the water has returned to its natural level.

(3) Where any such well or borehole is sunk in connection with an existing pumping station, the particulars of any test to be supplied to the said Committee shall also include the rate of pumping at the existing works during the test.

(4) Where the person sinking a well or borehole on any land is not the occupier of the land, the obligation to allow a person authorised by the said Committee to exercise the rights specified in paragraphs (a ) to (d ) of subsection (1) of this section shall be the obligation of the occupier as well as of the person sinking the well or borehole.

(5) Where any person contracts to sink any well or borehole on land belonging to or occupied by any other person and the execution of the work is under the control of the contractor, the contractor and no other person shall be deemed for the purposes of this section to be the person sinking the well or borehole.

(6) The person sinking a well or borehole or (if a different person) the owner or occupier of the land on which it is sunk may give notice in writing to the said Committee requiring them to treat as confidential any copy of or extract from the journal required to be kept under subsection (1) of this section or any specimen taken under that subsection, and the Committee shall thereupon not allow that copy, extract or specimen, except in so far as it contains or affords information as to water resources and supplies, to be published or shown to any person not being an officer of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research or of the Secretary of State, unless the person giving the notice consents thereto:

Provided that, if at any time the Committee give notice to that person that in their opinion, his consent is unreasonably withheld, then that person may, within three months after the notice is given by the Committee, appeal to the Railway and Canal Commission, but if at the expiration of that period no such appeal has been made, or if after hearing the appeal the Commission do not make an order restraining them from doing so, the Committee may proceed as if such consent had been given.

(7) Any person who fails to comply with any obligation imposed on him by the foregoing provisions of this section shall be guilty of all offence against this Act.

II DUTIES OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES.

PART II.

DUTIES OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES.

S-5 Local authorities.

5 Local authorities.

(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the local authority for the purposes of the supply of water shall be—

(a ) in the case of a county the county council; and

(b ) in the case of a burgh the town council;

and the expression ‘district’ in relation to a county council means the county and in relation to a town council the burgh; and it shall be the duty of the local authority to carry into execution within their district the provisions of this Act relating to a local authority.

(2) A local authority may in accordance with the provisions of this Act carry out their duties under this Act with regard to the provision of water supplies either by themselves providing such supplies or by securing the provision of such supplies by another local authority or by a joint water board or otherwise.

(3) The expression ‘limits of supply’ in relation to any local authority providing or authorised to provide a supply of water under this Act means the district of that authority, and, in relation to a local authority or joint water board providing or required to provide a supply of water under a local enactment, means the limits within which the authority or board are for the time being providing or required to provide a supply of water.

(4) The expression ‘local water authority’ means a local authority providing or authorised to provide a supply of water under this Act or a local authority or joint water board providing or required to provide a supply of water under a local enactment.

S-6 Exercise by local water authority of functions of local authority.

6 Exercise by local water authority of functions of local authority.

6. Where by or under any enactment a local water authority (whether constituted before or after the commencement of this Act) are exercising or are required to exercise any of the functions of a local authority in relation to water supply in the district of that local authority or in any part thereof, the local authority shall cease to discharge in relation to that district or part thereof any functions which are functions of the local water authority.

S-7 Duty of local authority to ascertain sufficiency and wholesomeness of water supplies.

7 Duty of local authority to ascertain sufficiency and wholesomeness of water supplies.

7. It shall be the duty of every local authority to take from time to time such steps as may be necessary for...

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