7 & 8 GEORGE 5, CHAPTER 37.

ance to be made under paragraphs (c), (d), (e) or (k) of the said subsection shall stand referred to and be determined by the special grants committee.

(4) The special grants committee may, subject to the approval of the Minister of Pensions, make regulations with respect to their proceedings and the exercise of the functions transferred to them under this Act, and the power of the committee to make regulations under paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of section three of the principal Act shall be exercised subject to the approval of the Minister.

(5) The special grants committee shall render to the Minister of Pensions such information, advice, and assistance as he may require in connection with any matters arising under this Act.

3. TRANSFER OF STAFF AND FUNDS.-(1) As from the appointed day there shall be transferred and attached to the Ministry of Pensions the persons employed under the Statutory Committee in or about the execution of the functions of the Statutory Committee under the principal Act, and the Minister may from time to time assign to the several persons so transferred, in such manner as he thinks right, any of the business of the Minister, whether or not such business relates to the functions transferred to the Minister under this Act, and those officers shall perform such duties in relation to such business as may be directed by the Minister:

Provided that such persons shall while they continue in office be in no worse position as respects their tenure of office, salary, and superannuation allowances than they would have been had this Act not been passed.

(2) Out of the funds belonging to the Statutory Committee derived from or representing money provided by Parliament, there shall be transferred to a special account to be opened for the purpose, in accordance with directions to be given by the Treasury, to be called "the Ministry of Pensions (Special Grants) Account' (hereinafter referred to as "the special grants account") the sum of five hundred thousand pounds, and the balance of such funds shall be paid into the Exchequer.

(3) All other property belonging to the Statutory Committee shall be transferred to the Royal Patriotic Fund corporation, and shall be held and applied by them upon the trusts and for the purposes upon and for which it was held and applicable by the Statutory Committee.

4. EXPENSES AND ACCOUNTS OF SPECIAL GRANTS COMMITTEE.—(1) The cost of any grants or allowances the amounts of which are under the provisions of this Act determined by the special grants committee shall so far as not defrayed out of moneys provided by Parliament be defrayed out of the money standing to the credit of the special grants account.

(2) Payments out of and into the special grants account shall be made, and all other matters relating to the account and to the money standing to the credit of the account (including the investment of any such money) shall be regulated in such manner as the Treasury direct.

(3) At the end of every financial year accounts of the payments into and the expenditure defrayed out of the special grants account shall be made up in such form and with such particulars as may be directed by the Treasury, and shall be audited by the Comptroller and Auditor-General as public accounts in accordance with such regulations as the Treasury may make, and shall be laid before Parliament with a report thereon.

5. SHORT TITLE, REPEAL, AND SAVING.-(1) This Act may be cited as the Naval and Military War Pensions, &c. (Transfer of Powers), Act 1917.

(2) The enactments mentioned in the Schedule to this Act are hereby repealed to the extent specified in the third column of that Schedule.

(3) Nothing in this Act shall affect any schemes, regulations, orders, or grants made by the Statutory Committee, but all such schemes, regulations, and orders shall, until altered or revoked by the Minister of Pensions or by the special grants committee, with the approval of the Minister of Pensions, as the case may require, continue in force with this modification, that references therein to the Statutory Committee shall be construed as references to the Minister of Pensions or the special grants committee, as the case may require, and any grants made by the Statutory Committee shall continue to be payable.

[21st August 1917.]

An Act to continue certain Expiring Laws. WHEREAS the Acts mentioned in the Schedule to this Act are, in so far as they are in force and are temporary in their duration, limited to expire, as respects the Acts mentioned in Part I. of that Schedule, on the thirty-first day of December nineteen. hundred and seventeen, and, as respects the Act mentioned in Part II. of that Schedule, on the thirteenth day of December nineteen hundred and seventeen, and, as respects the Acts mentioned in Part III. of that Schedule, at the end of the present session of Parliament, and, as respects the Acts mentioned in Part IV. of that Schedule, on the thirty-first day of March nineteen hundred and eighteen:

And whereas it is expedient to provide for the continuance as in this Act mentioned of those Acts, and of the enactments amending or affecting the same:

Be it therefore 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:

1. CONTINUANCE OF ACTS IN SCHEDULE.-(1) The Acts mentioned in Part I., Part II., and Part III. of the Schedule to this Act shall, to the extent specified in column three of that Schedule, be continued until the thirty-first day of December nineteen hundred and eighteen, and shall then expire, unless further continued.

(2) The Acts mentioned in Part IV. of the Schedule to this Act shall, to the extent specified in column three of that Schedule, be continued until the thirty-first day of March nineteen hundred and nineteen, and shall then expire, unless further continued.

(3) Any unrepealed enactments amending or affecting the enactments continued by this Act shall, in so far as they are temporary in their duration, be continued in like manner, whether they are mentioned in the Schedule to this Act or not.

2. SHORT TITLE.-This Act may be cited as the Expiring Laws Continuance Act 1917.