(1) If it appears to any auditor to whom the accounts of an Insurance Committee (including the accounts of any officer or servant of the Committee) have been submitted under paragraph (c) of subsection (1) of section sixty of the principal Act, that any item of account is contrary to law, or that any money or income which ought to have been brought into account has not been so brought into account, the auditor shall disallow the item of account and shall surcharge the amount of any unlawful payment or expenditure, or of any loss or deficiency, upon any member, officer, or servant of the Committee or other person by whose negligence or misconduct that payment or expenditure has been made or authorised or that loss or deficiency has been incurred: Provided that no item of account shall be disallowed or surcharged by the auditor if the same has been sanctioned by the Commissioners. (2) Any Insurance Committee or person aggrieved by any disallowance or surcharge may, within thirty days after the date of the auditor's certificate, appeal to the Insurance Commissioners, whose decision shall be final, and the procedure on appeal shall be such as may be prescribed: Provided that the Commissioners may at any stage of the proceedings on appeal, and shall if so directed by the High Court, state in the form of a special case for the opinion of the Court any question of law arising in the course of the appeal. (3) The Insurance Commissioners, in considering whether any item of account should be sanctioned, or in determining any appeal under this Schedule, may, if they are of opinion that any disallowance or surcharge has been or would be lawfully made, but that in the circumstances of the case it is equitable that the disallowance or surcharge should not be made, sanction the item of account and remit the disallowance or surcharge: Provided that where the item of account or expenditure relates in whole or in part to moneys provided under subsection (1) of section one of the National Insurance Act 1913, the Commissioners shall have regard to the terms of any scheme, vote, or regulation providing for or prescribing the application of those moneys. (4) In any case in which an appeal has been made to the Commissioners, the auditor may re-open the audit for the purpose of giving effect to the decision of the Commissioners. (5) Any sum surcharged by the auditor, or any balance certified by him to be due, shall be paid to the Commissioners by the person who is surcharged or from whom the balance is certified to be due within thirty days after the date of the auditor's certificate, or, if an appeal is lodged and the amount surcharged or certified to be due is not remitted, within thirty days after the date of the decision of the Commissioners, and if not paid within the time aforesaid may be recovered by the Commissioners summarily as a civil debt; and the costs of any proceedings for the recovery of any such sum so far as not recovered from the person surcharged shall be charged to the Insurance Committee. On any proceedings for the recovery of such a sum a certificate purporting to be signed by an auditor appointed under the principal Act shall be conclusive evidence of the facts certified. 7 & 8 GEORGE 5, CHAPTER 62. (6) Any person who knowingly recharges to the funds of an Insurance Committee any sum which has been disallowed by the auditor and has not been allowed by the Insurance Commissioners on appeal, shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding three times the amount of the sum so recharged. PART II. (1) If it appears to any auditor to whom the accounts of any Insurance Committee in Scotland (including the accounts of any officer or servant of the Committee) have been submitted under paragraph (c) of subsection (1) of section sixty of the principal Act that any item of account is contrary to law, or that any money or income which ought to have been is not brought into account, the auditor shall, by an interim report under his hand, report thereon to the Scottish Insurance Commissioners setting forth the grounds of his opinion as aforesaid; and the Commissioners shall cause such interim report to be intimated to the Committee or person affected thereby; and after such enquiry as the Commissioners think fit they shall decide all questions raised by such interim report and shall disallow all unlawful items of account and shall surcharge the amount of any unlawful payment or expenditure or of any loss or deficiency, upon any member, officer, or servant of the Committee or other person by whose negligence or misconduct that payment or expenditure has been made or authorised or that loss or deficiency has been incurred. (2) If the Scottish Insurance Commissioners are of opinion that any disallowance or surcharge might lawfully be made, but that in the circumstances of the case it is equitable that the disallowance or surcharge should not be made, they may abstain from making the same: Provided that where the payment or expenditure in question relates in whole or in part to moneys provided under subsection (1) of section one of the National Insurance Act 1913, the Commissioners shall have regard to the terms of any scheme, vote, or regulation providing for or prescribing the application of those moneys. (3) Every sum determined by the Scottish Insurance Commissioners under the provisions hereof to be due from any person shall be paid by such person to the Commissioners within thirty days after such determination has been intimated to him, and if such sum is not so paid the Commissioners may recover the same as a civil debt; and the costs of any proceedings for the recovery of any such sum so far as not recovered from the person surcharged shall be charged to the Insurance Committee. On any such proceedings a certificate purporting to be signed by the Secretary of the Commissioners or some person authorised by the Commissioners to act on behalf of the Secretary shall be conclusive evidence of the facts certified. (4) Any person who knowingly recharges to the funds of an Insurance Committee any sum which has been disallowed by the Scottish Insurance Commissioners under the provisions hereof shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding three times the amount of the sum so recharged. FOURTH SCHEDULE (s. 31). MATTERS WITH RESPECT TO WHICH REGULATIONS MAY BE MADE. (1) The manner and conditions in and upon which the following matters may be carried into effect: (a) The transfer by an approved society of its engagements under Part I. of the principal Act, or of such of those engagements as relate to members resident in any particular part of the United Kingdom, or as relate to men only or women only, to any other approved society or to any two or more other approved societies which may undertake to fulfil those engagements; (b) The transfer of the engagements of a branch of an approved society, or of such of those engagements as relate to men only or to women only, to any other NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE ACT 1918. branch, or to any two or more other branches, of that society or of any other society or to any other society or to any two or more other societies; (c) The secession, expulsion, or dissolution of a branch of an approved society in respect of its business under Part I. of the principal Act; (d) The financial adjustments to be made on any such transfer, secession, expulsion or dissolution. (2) Enabling or requiring an approved society with branches to establish, subject to prescribed conditions and in the prescribed manner, a central fund for the purpose of administering the benefits of any of the members of any branch which may secede or be dissolved or expelled or cease to be a branch for the purposes of Part I. of the principal Act, and making provision with respect to payments into and out of any fund so established, and with respect to the transfer of any persons for whose benefits the fund is liable to any other branch of the society. (3) Enabling an approved society, not being a society with branches, to establish branches, and to apportion among the branches, subject to the prescribed conditions, all or any of the funds of the society. (4) Applying to the Navy and Army Insurance Fund and to the members of that fund, subject to the prescribed modifications, adaptations and exceptions, the provisions of Part I. of the principal Act and of this Act relating to approved societies and to members and membership of and transfer to and from approved societies, and relating to persons lapsing from insurance, and for providing benefits (other than additional benefits) out of that fund to any persons being persons to whom section forty-six of the principal Act applies and who are not members of an approved society when discharged, for such period after discharge as may be prescribed. (5) Providing, in the case of any persons who are insured at the commencement of this Act and whose position is affected by any of the provisions thereof, for the transition from the provisions of Part I. of the principal Act affecting them to those provisions as amended by the provisions of this Act, including any necessary crediting or variation of reserve values. (6) The issue of certificates for the purpose of Part I. of the principal Act by medical practitioners under agreement with insurance committees. (7) The application of any existing provisions with respect to the administration of medical benefit to the domiciliary treatment of persons recommended for sanatorium benefit. (8) Applying the provisions of this Act with the necessary modifications, adaptations and exceptions to deposit contributors. (9) Enabling the accounts of deposit contributors to be kept in terms of contributions, and the amounts payable to or in respect of deposit contributors on account of benefit to be fixed in terms of contributions, and for prescribing the conditions subject to which the benefits of deposit contributors shall be paid or provided. (10) Prescribing the amount which may be charged in respect of the expenses (by whomsoever incurred) of administering the benefits of deposit contributors and for providing for the payment of and otherwise regulating those expenses. (11) Applying the provisions of section ninety-seven of the Friendly Societies Act 1896, subject to any necessary modifications, to certificates of the death of insured. persons required for the purpose of Part I. of the principal Act. PART II. The administration of any medical benefit or treatment the cost of which may be defrayed out of the additional sums provided by Parliament under section one of the National Insurance Act 1913. Session and 1 & 2 Geo. 5, c. 55. 3 & 4 Geo. 5, c. 37. The National Insurance Act 1913. Subsection (3) of section one; subsection (1) The National Insurance Act Sections four, seven, and eight; in section CHAPTER LXIII. An Act to amend the National Insurance (Part II.) (Munition Workers) Act 1916, and to amend the National Insurance (Unemployment) Acts 1911 to 1916, with respect to the proportion to be borne by the amount of unemployment benefit to the number of contributions paid. [6th February 1918.] BE it 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 Parlia ment assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: 1. POWER TO EXCLUDE TRADES FROM OPERATION OF 6 & 7 GEO. 5, c. 20.— (1) The Minister of Labour may by Order direct that any trade or any branch of any trade mentioned in the First Schedule to the National Insurance (Part II.) (Munition Workers) Act 1916 (which Schedule sets out the trades to which, by that Act, the provisions of the National Insurance Act 1911, as amended by subsequent enactments, are temporarily extended) shall be excluded from that Schedule, and accordingly section one of that Act shall have effect as though after the words "the First Schedule to this Act" there were inserted the words "except in cases where the trade, or any branch thereof, is excluded by order of the Minister of Labour." NATIONAL INSURANCE (UNEMPLOYMENT) ACT 1918. (2) An order under this section affecting any trade or branch of a trade shall not be made unless the Minister of Labour is satisfied that, having regard to the prospects of unemployment in that trade or branch at the end of the war, and to all the circumstances of the case, it is desirable to make an order. (3) Where an order has been made under this section, any workman and the employer of any workman shall, on making an application to the Minister of Labour for the purpose, within six months after the making of the order, and on satisfying the Minister (a) that the number of contributions paid in respect of that workman are less than ten; and (b) that by reason of the order the workman has ceased to be employed in an insured trade; be entitled to have repaid to him out of the Unemployment Fund the amount of the contributions paid by the workman, or by the employer in respect of the workman (as the case may be), whilst the workman was employed in any trade or branch of a trade excluded by the order, after deducting (in the case of a workman) the amount of the unemployment benefit, if any, which he may have received; but if at any time after such repayment the workman becomes entitled to unemployment benefit he shall be treated as if no contributions had been paid in respect of him whilst employed in such trade or branch of a trade. 2. POWER TO VARY PROPORTION OF BENEFIT TO CONTRIBUTIONS PAID.—The proportion which is required by the Seventh Schedule to the National Insurance Act 1911 (1 & 2 Geo. 5, c. 55) to be borne by the amount of benefit received to the amount of contributions paid may be varied in such manner as may be prescribed, and accordingly that Schedule shall have effect as if in the fourth paragraph thereof after the words "under this Act" there were inserted the words "or such other proportion as may be prescribed either generally or for any particular trade or branch thereof": Provided that any variation in the said proportion shall be subject to the consent of the Treasury. 3. SHORT TITLE.-This Act may be cited as the National Insurance (Unemployment) Act 1918, and the National Insurance (Unemployment) Acts 1911 to 1916 and this Act may be cited together as the National Insurance (Unemployment) Acts 1911 to 1918. |