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relating to the purchase of land otherwise than by agreement and the provisions relating to access to the special Act, and except sections one hundred and twenty-seven to one hundred and thirty-two of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845) shall be incorporated with this section, and in construing those Acts as so incorporated this section shall be deemed to be the special Act and references to the promoters of the undertaking shall be construed as references to the Prison Commissioners.

37.—(1) Subject to the next following subsection, the Secretary of State may by order close any prison.

(2) Where a prison is the only prison in the county, the Secretary of State shall not make an order under this section in respect of it except for special reasons, which shall be stated in the order.

(3) In this section the expression “county” means a county at large.

(4) For the purposes of this and the next following section a prison shall not be deemed to be closed by reason only of its appropriation for use as a remand centre, detention centre or Borstal institution.

38.—(1) Where a prison existing before the first day of April, eighteen hundred and seventy-eight is closed, the Secretary of State shall serve notice on the appropriate authority that he will, if the authority so requests within such period, not being less than six months, from the service of the notice as may be stated in the notice, cause the prison to be conveyed to the authority on payment by them into the Exchequer of an amount calculated in accordance with subsections (4) and (5) of this section together with an amount equal to the compensation, if any, which the authority to which the prison belonged immediately before the commencement of the Prison Act, 1877, may have received out of moneys provided by Parliament in respect of their having provided a prison more than adequate for the accommodation of the prisoners belonging to them.

(2) Where the appropriate authority does not request as aforesaid or fails to pay or to secure to the satisfaction of the Secretary of State the payment of the amounts mentioned in the preceding subsection, the Secretary of State shall cause the prison to be sold and shall apply the proceeds, after deducting the expenses of the sale, by paying into the Exchequer the amounts mentioned in the preceding subsection and by paying the balance, if any, to the appropriate authority. 15