Committee Reports::Interim and Final Report - Appropriation Accounts 1978 - 1979::17 November, 1983::Appendix


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APPENDIX 13

THE TRANSFER OF MONEY TO LONDON FROM THE GENERAL LIGHTHOUSE FUND.

26 October, 1982.

Mr. Liam Browne,

Clerk to the Committee.

Dear Mr. Browne,

At the meeting of the Public Accounts Committee last week, I was asked to supply a note in relation to the General Lighthouse Fund. I attach a note which gives the background to the matter.

Yours sincerely,

P. McMAHON

Chairman

Revenue Commissioners.

Appropriation Account 1979

Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General

Subhead I — Item 7 (Miscellaneous) — Receipt of £6,380 from the General Lighthouse Fund.

The provision and administration of the lights services (comprising lighthouses, beacons, buoys and other aids required for general maritime navigation) around the coasts of the United Kingdom and Ireland, are goverend by the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894. The Act vested the superintendence and management of the lights in three bodies, known as General Lighthouse Authorities, as follows:—

(a) throughout England, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar in Trinity House.

(b) throughout Scotland and the Isle of Man — in the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses; and

The lights and navigational aids in the three areas are separately owned and managed by the respective General Lighthouse Authorities. However, the whole system is operated as a single financial unit and is paid for from the General Lighthouse Fund administered by the British Board of Trade in association with the three General Lighthouse Authorities.

All ships using ports in the United Kingdom and Ireland pay light dues on a uniform scale fixed by the British Board of Trade to the General Lighthouse Authority within whose area the ports may be. Dues paid to any of the Authorities in respect of a voyage exempt the vessel from further payment to the other Authorities for that voyage. The dues are usually collected by the local Customs officials and remitted to the British Board of Trade by whom they are paid into the General Lighthouse Fund.

In this country the light dues (for the 26 Counties) are collected by the Customs Staff of this Office and are remitted to the Department of Transport for transfer to the British Board of Trade.

For the extra-departmental work involved in collecting the dues, the Revenue Commissioners raise an annual charge calculated on a time-cost basis. This charge is collected from the General Lighthouse Fund via the British Board of Trade and is appropriated in aid of the Revenue Vote. For 1979 the charge raised was £6,380. This amount was received and brought to account as an Appropriation in Aid of the Vote. The relevant entry is shown under Subhead I — Item No. 7 (Miscellaneous) on page 16 of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s Report on the Appropriation Account for 1979. Light dues collected in 1979 amounted to £863,816.