Page:Representation of the Peoples Act 1918 (ukpga 19180064).pdf/10

262 Expenses of registration

15.—(1) Any expenses properly incurred by a registration officer in the performance of his duties in relation to registration, including all proper and reasonable charges for trouble, care and attention in the performance of those duties, and any costs incurred by him as party to an appeal (in this Act referred to as "registration expenses") shall be paid by the council whose clerk the registration officer is, or by whom he is appointed, subject, in cases where the registration area is not coterminous with or wholly contained in the area of that council, to such contributions by the council of any other county or borough as the Local Government Board may direct.

Any such expenses shall be paid in the case of the council of a county out of the county fund, and if the case requires as expenses for special county purposes, and in the case of the council of a borough out of the borough fund or borough rate, or, where there is no borough fund or borough rate, out of the fund or rate out of which the ordinary expenses of the council of the borough are paid.

(2) The Treasury may frame a scale of registration expenses applicable to all or any class or classes of those expenses, and may alter the scale as and when they think fit.

Any expenses incurred by the registration officer of a class to which the scale is applicable shall be taken to be properly incurred if they do not exceed the maximum amount determined by or in accordance with the scale, and so far as they do exceed that amount shall be taken not to have been properly incurred unless the excess is specially sanctioned by the council and the Treasury either before or after the expenses have been incurred.

If any question arises whether any expenses incurred by the registration officer of a class to which the scale is not applicable have been properly incurred or not, that question shall be referred to the Local Government Board, and the decision of the Board on the question shall be final.

(3) Any fees or other sum received by the registration officer in respect of his duties as such officer, other than sums paid to that officer in respect of his registration expenses, shall be accounted for by that officer and paid to the credit of the fund or rate out of which the expenses of that officer are paid.

(4) There shall be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament to the council of any county or borough in aid of the fund or rate out of which any registration expenses are paid by the council, in accordance with this Act, one half of the amount so paid by the council.

(5) On the request of the registration officer of any registration area for an advance on account of registration expenses, the council whose clerk the registration officer is may, if they think fit, make such an advance to him of such amount and subject to such conditions as the council may approve.

Special provisions with respect to urban districts and London.

16.—(1) Where an urban district is coterminous with a registration area which is a parliamentary borough or is wholly contained in such area, this Part of this Act shall apply to that district as it applies to a municipal borough, with the