Water Resources Act 1963
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
Water Resources Act 1963
1963 CHAPTER 38
An Act to provide for the establishment of river authorities and a Water Resources Board, to confer on them, and on the Minister of Housing and Local Government, new functions in relation to water resources in England and Wales, and to provide for the transfer to river authorities of functions previously exercisable by river boards and other bodies; to make further provision for controlling the abstraction and impounding of water, for imposing charges in respect of licences to abstract or impound water, and for securing the protection and proper use of inland waters and water in underground strata; to enable corresponding provision to be made in relation to the Thames and Lee catchment areas and certain other areas in or adjacent to London; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
B e it enacted by the Queen'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:—
Part I
Functions of Ministers in relation to WaterResources
1 Functions of Ministers.
(1) The duty of the Minister of Housing and Local Government (in this Act referred to as ‘the Minister’) under section 1 of the Water Act 1945 (which requires him to promote the conservation and proper use of water resources and the provision of water supplies in England and Wales, and to secure the effective execution by water undertakers, under his control and direction, of a national policy relating to water) shall be extended so as to require the Minister—
( a ) in formulating a national policy relating to water, to include such measures as he may consider necessary or expedient for augmenting the water resources of areas in England and Wales, for re-distributing water resources in any such area or for transferring water resources from one such area to another, and
( b ) to secure that, under his control and direction, that policy will be effectively executed by the river authorities and the Water Resources Board to be established under this Act, as well as by statutory water undertakers, in so far as that policy relates to matters falling within the functions of those bodies respectively.
(2) In this Act, subject to any express provision for including the Minister of Transport, ‘the Ministers’ means the Minister and the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and, in the case of anything falling to be done by the Ministers, means those Ministers acting jointly.
2 Meaning of ‘water resources’.
(1) In this Act ‘water resources’, in relation to any area, means water for the time being contained in any source of supply in that area, and ‘source of supply’, in relation to any area, means either of the following, that is to say—
( a ) so much of any inland water, other than any inland water falling within subsection (3) of this section, as is situated in that area, and
( b ) any underground strata in that area.
(2) For the purposes of this Act water for the time being contained in—
( a ) a well, borehole or similar work, including any adit or passage constructed in connection with it for facilitating the collection of water in the well, borehole or work, or
( b ) any excavation into underground strata, where the level of water in the excavation depends wholly or mainly on water entering it from those strata,
shall be treated as water contained in the underground strata into which the well, borehole or work was sunk, or the excavation was made, as the case may be.
(3) Except as provided by the last preceding subsection, an inland water which either—
( a ) is a lake, pond or reservoir which does not discharge to any other inland water, or
( b ) is one of a group of two or more lakes, ponds or reservoirs (whether near to or distant from each other) and of watercourses or mains connecting them, where none of the inland waters in the group discharges to any inland water outside the group,
does not constitute a source of supply for the purposes of this Act.
Part II
River Authorities and Water Resources Board
River authorities
3 Establishment of river authorities.
(1) The Ministers shall, as soon as practicable after the passing of this Act, and after consultation with such persons, or bodies representative of persons, as they consider appropriate, by order establish authorities, to be called ‘river authorities’.
(2) The names of the river authorities established by virtue of this section shall be those specified in the second column of Schedule 1 to this Act; and, subject to the following provisions of this section, the area for which any such river authority is so established shall be an area consisting of the river board area, or combination of river board areas, specified in relation to that river authority in the third column of that Schedule.
(3) The area for which a river authority is for the time being established by virtue of this section or of section 10 of this Act shall be called a ‘river authority area’.
(4) All the river authorities established by virtue of this section—
( a ) shall come into existence on such day as may be appointed for the purposes of this paragraph by an order made by the Ministers (in this Act referred to as ‘the first appointed day’), and
( b ) on and after such day (subsequent to the first appointed day) as may be appointed for the purposes of this paragraph by an order made by the Ministers (in this Act referred to as ‘the second appointed day’) shall perform the functions assigned or transferred to them by or under this Act.
(5) The functions assigned by or under this Act to river authorities, other than functions transferred to them by or under section 5 or (except as otherwise provided in that section) section 82 of this Act, are in this Act referred to as their ‘new functions’; and the functions transferred to river authorities by or under those sections (except as otherwise provided in the said section 82) are in this Act referred to as their ‘transferred functions’.
(6) In this section, and in Schedule 1 to this Act, any reference to a river board area is a reference to that area as it exists immediately before the first appointed day for the purposes of the functions of river boards relating to land drainage.
(7) The provisions of Schedule 2 to this Act shall have effect for the purposes of this section.
4 General duty of river authorities in relation to water resources.
Without prejudice to any other functions assigned or transferred to them by or under this Act, it shall be the duty of each river authority, as from the second appointed day, to take all such action as they may from time to time consider necessary or expedient, or as they may be directed to take by virtue of this Act, for the purpose of conserving, re-distributing or otherwise augmenting water resources in their area, of securing the proper use of water resources in their area, or of transferring any such resources to the area of another river authority.
5 Transfer to river authorities of functions of river boards.
(1) As from the second appointed day, all the functions which immediately before that day were exercisable by river boards by virtue of—
( a ) section 4 of the River Boards Act 1948 (which provided for the transfer to river boards of functions relating to land drainage, fisheries, river pollution and other matters), or
( b ) section 8 of that Act (which provided for the transfer to river boards of functions of navigation authorities, conservancy authorities and harbour authorities), or
( c ) the Rivers (Prevention of Pollution) Acts 1951 to 1961, or
( d ) any other statutory provision not contained in, or made or issued under, the River Boards Act 1948,
shall be transferred to the river authorities established under this Act.
(2) In accordance with the preceding subsection, the provisions of Schedule 3 to this Act shall have effect for adapting statutory provisions as mentioned in that Schedule.
6 Constitution of river authorities.
(1) A river authority shall consist of not less than twenty-one members and (excluding any additional members) not more than thirty-one members, or such greater number (if any) as may be prescribed under subsection (5) of this section.
(2) Such number of members of a river authority as is sufficient (hut not more than sufficient) to constitute a majority of the total membership of the authority (including any additional members thereof) shall, subject to the provisions of the next following section, be appointed by or on behalf of all the constituent councils.
(3) The remainder of the members of a river authority (other than additional members) shall consist...
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