Annex 1: Minor Changes in the Law Change 15: Devolution: sections 71, 81, 83, 155, 1243, 1284, 1320 and 1321 and Schedules 1 and 2 Section 155
Section 509 of ICTA provides special rules for the treatment of the statutory reserve funds which must in certain circumstances be maintained by certain statutory authorities. Section 509(3) of ICTA defines the terms “Minister of the Crown” and “government department” to include a “Head of Department or a Department in Northern Ireland”.
Section 155(1) of this Act maintains parity of treatment throughout the United Kingdom following the recent devolution settlements by rewriting the definition of “Minister of the Crown” to refer to a Minister of the Crown, the Scottish Ministers or the Welsh Ministers. Similarly, section 155(2) rewrites the definition of “government department” to refer to a government department, a Northern Ireland department, a part of the Scottish Administration, and a part of the Welsh Assembly Government.
Some functions that are relevant for the purposes of section 509 of ICTA were, as a result of transfers of functions, exercisable in relation to Wales by the Welsh Ministers (see SI 1969/388, SI 1978/272, SI 1999/672 and the Government of Wales Act 2006). Some functions that may be relevant for the purposes of section 509 of ICTA (but not the function of making schemes under section 13 of the Agriculture Act 1967) were, as a result of transfers of functions, exercisable for Scotland by the Scottish Ministers (see SI 1999/1747).
The effect of section 85(1) of the Government of Wales Act 2006 is that, so far as statutory functions that are relevant for the purposes of section 509(1) or (2) of ICTA are exercisable by the Welsh Ministers, the corresponding references in those subsections to “a Minister of the Crown or government department” include the Welsh Ministers.
Section 117 of the Scotland Act 1998 (construction of references to Ministers of the Crown in pre-commencement enactments) does not appear to be relevant for present purposes, as it relates only to the exercise of functions within devolved competence.