The Act Overview Finances and reporting, etc.
76.Section 25 provides that the Scottish Ministers may make grants to a person (which covers organisations as well as individuals) or local authorities. The purposes for which grants may be made are: to help with the cost of retrofitting vehicles in order to reduce their emissions, to help with a local authority’s costs in deciding whether to make a low emission zone scheme, operating a scheme, or revoking a scheme. Grants (including grants from the Scottish Ministers to local authorities) can be unconditional or can be subject to specific conditions as to repayment. If a grant is made by the Scottish Ministers to a local authority, any conditions of the grant must be agreed by the Scottish Ministers and the local authority.
77.Section 26 confirms that a local authority has power to incur expenditure in connection with low emission zone schemes, and that they may enter into arrangements such as sub-contracting in relation to matters such as the installation of cameras.
78.Under section 27, the proceeds of a low emission zone scheme may be applied by the local authority only for specified purposes. The first of these is facilitating the achievement of the scheme’s objectives. This would cover elements such as, but not limited to, the back-office administration costs of operating the scheme and implementing air quality and climate change emission mitigation measures. Under section 14(2), a scheme which is made by more than one local authority must set out in the scheme how the proceeds will be apportioned between or among them.
79.Under section 27(b) any monies received from penalty charges can be applied for the repayment of any grant under section 25, but only where any surplus remains from spending to facilitate the achievement of the scheme’s objectives (in short, the purpose in section 27(a) takes precedence over the purpose in section 27(b)).
80.Section 28 allows the Scottish Ministers to make regulations about the accounts that local authorities must keep in connection with their functions in relation to low emission zone schemes.
81.Section 29 requires each local authority which is operating a low emission zone scheme to prepare and publish a report on the scheme, to send a copy of it to the Scottish Ministers, and to lay a copy of the report in the Scottish Parliament. These actions must be completed as soon as reasonably practicable after the end of the financial year (i.e. 31 March). The report must provide specific commentary on the scheme as described in subsection (2) of this section.