Without prejudice to the powers of the custos rotulorum to give directions as to the documents of any county, a principal council shall make proper arrangements with respect to any documents which belong to or are in the custody of the council or any of their officers.

This section applies to a joint authority F37, economic prosperity boardF70, combined authority or combined county authorityF3 ... as it applies to a principal council.

In subsection (1) above “county”, in relation to Wales, means a preserved county.

In any case in which a document of any description is deposited with the proper officer of a local authority, or with the chairman of a parish or community council or with the chairman of a parish meeting, pursuant to the standing orders of either House of Parliament or to any enactment or instrument, the proper officer or chairman, as the case may be, shall receive and retain the document in the manner and for the purposes directed by the standing orders or enactment or instrument, and shall make such notes or endorsements on, and give such acknowledgments and receipts in respect of, the document as may be so directed.

All documents required by any enactment or instrument to be deposited with the proper officer of a parish or community shall, in the case of a parish or community not having a separate parish or community council, be deposited in England with the chairman of the parish meeting or in Wales with the proper officer of the F5principal council.

In this section “local authority” includes a joint authority F88, a corporate joint committeeF38, an economic prosperity board F72, a combined authority and a combined county authority

Nothing in this Act shall affect the custody of registers of baptisms, marriages and burials and of all other documents containing entries wholly or partly relating to the affairs of the church, as defined by the M1Local Government Act 1894, or to ecclesiastical charities, as so defined, except documents directed by law to be kept with the papers of a parish or community.

Any difference about the custody of or access to any documents mentioned in subsection (1) or (2) above shall, if the area is in F8Wales or in a F9metropolitan district, London borough or the City, be determined by the Secretary of State and in any other case by the county council.

F10The council of every county or metropolitan district shall from time to time enquire into the manner in which specified papers under the control of a parish F11. . . or parish meeting F12in their area are kept with a view to their proper preservation, and shall make such orders as they think necessary for their preservation, and those orders shall be complied with by the parish F11. . . or parish meeting.

Subsection (5) above shall also apply in relation to community councils but as if the functions conferred by it were functions of the principal council.

In the case of a parish or community having a separate parish or community council that council or, if they so request, the council of the district in which the parish F14. . . is situated F15or the council of the principal area in which the community is situated, shall provide proper depositories for all the specified papers belonging to the parish or community for which no provision is otherwise made.

In the case of a parish or community not having a separate parish or community council, the council of the district in which the parish F14. . . is situated F15or the council of the principal area in which the community is situated shall provide proper depositories for all the specified papers under the control of the parish meeting or belonging to the community but in England only with the consent of the parish meeting of the parish.

A copy of the minutes of proceedings of a community council must, so far as reasonably practicable, be supplied on request to a local government elector for the area of the council; and a reasonable fee may be charged for providing a copy of the minutes.

The minutes of proceedings of a F16parish F67... council shall be open to the inspection of any local government elector for the area of the F16the council and any such local government elector may make a copy of or extract from the minutes.

A local government elector for the area of a local authority may inspect and make a copy of or extract from an order for the payment of money made by the local authority.

The accounts of a local authority and of any proper officer of a local authority shall be open to the inspection of any member of the authority, and any such member may make a copy of or extract from the accounts.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Subject to any provisions to the contrary in any other enactment or instrument, a person interested in any document deposited as mentioned in section 225 above may, at all reasonable hours, inspect and make copies thereof or extracts therefrom on payment to the person having custody thereof of the sum of 10p for every such inspection, and of the further sum of 10p for every hour during which such inspection continues after the first hour.

A document directed by F56any of subsections (1) to (5) of this section to be open to inspection shall be so open at all reasonable hours and, except where otherwise expressly provided, without payment.

This section shall apply to the minutes of proceedings and the accounts of a joint authority F45, an economic prosperity board, F48, a combined authority or a combined county authorityF74... F91... F86... as if that authority were a local authority and as if, F20..., references to a local government elector for the area of the authority were a reference to a local government elector for any local government area in the area for which the authority is established.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

This section shall apply to the minutes of proceedings and to the accounts of a parish meeting as if that meeting were a F21parish council.

In relation to the Broads Authority, the references in this section to a local government elector for the area of the authority shall be construed as references to a local government elector for the area of any of the local authorities mentioned in section 1(3)(a) of the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads Act 1988.

Subsections (2) to (7) apply to a corporate joint committee as they apply to a local authority and, in that application, references to a local government elector for the area of the authority are to be read as references to a local government elector for any local government area in the area specified as the corporate joint committee’s area in regulations under Part 5 of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 establishing the corporate joint committee.

Subject to subsections (3) and (7) below, any requirement imposed by any enactment that a local authority or parish meeting shall keep a document of any description shall be satisfied by their keeping a photographic copy of the document.

Subject to subsection (7) below, any requirement imposed by any enactment that a document of any description in the custody or under the control of a local authority or parish meeting shall be made available for inspection shall be satisfied by their making available for inspection a photographic copy of the document.

Subsection (1) above shall not apply to any document deposited with a local authority under the M2Public Records Act 1958.

In legal proceedings a photographic copy of a document in the custody of a local authority or parish meeting, or of a document which has been destroyed while in the custody of a local authority or parish meeting, or of any part of any such document, shall, subject to subsection (6) below, be admissible in evidence to the like extent as the original.

A certificate purporting to be signed by the proper officer of the local authority, or the chairman of the parish meeting, concerned that a document is such a photographic copy as is mentioned in subsection (4) above, shall, subject to subsection (7) below, be evidence to that effect.

The court before which a photographic copy is tendered in evidence in pursuance of subsection (4) above may, if the original is in existence, require its production and thereupon that subsection shall not apply to the copy.

A photographic copy of a document in colour where the colours are relevant to the interpretation of the document shall not suffice for the purposes of this section unless it so distinguishes between the colours as to enable the document to be interpreted.

In this section “court” and “legal proceedings” have the same meanings as in the M3Civil Evidence Act 1968 F23and “local authority” includes F89a corporate joint committee, a joint authority, F39an economic prosperity board, a combined authorityF69... F59, F58a combined county authority,F49a fire and rescue authority created by an order under section 4A of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, a police and crime commissioner and the Mayor's Office for Policing and CrimeF79... F24...

Every local authority, every joint board and every joint committee of local authorities shall send the Secretary of State such reports and returns, and give him such information with respect to their functions, as he may require or as may be required by either House of Parliament.

In this section “local authority” includes a joint authority F40, an economic prosperity boardF46, a combined authority and a combined county authorityF27... .

Subject to subsection (3) below, any notice, order or other document required or authorised by any enactment or any instrument made under an enactment to be given to or served on a local authority or the chairman or an officer of a local authority shall be given or served by addressing it to the local authority and leaving it at, or sending it by post to, the principal office of the authority or any other office of the authority specified by them as one at which they will accept documents of the same description as that document.

Any notice, order or other document so required or authorised to be given to or served on a parish meeting, or the chairman of the parish meeting, shall be given or served by addressing it to the chairman of the parish meeting and by delivering it to him, or by leaving it at his last known address, or by sending it by post to him at that address.

The foregoing provisions of this section do not apply to a document which is to be given or served in any proceedings in court, but except as aforesaid the methods of giving or serving documents provided for by those provisions are in substitution for the methods provided for by any other enactment or any instrument made under an enactment so far as it relates to the giving or service of documents to or on a local authority, the chairman or an officer of a local authority or a parish meeting or the chairman of a parish meeting.

In this section “local authority” includes F90a corporate joint committee, a joint authority, F41an economic prosperity board, a combined authorityF65... F62, F77a combined county authority,F50a fire and rescue authority created by an order under section 4A of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, a police and crime commissioner and the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime F84... F29....

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

In subsection (1) above “local authority” includes F85a corporate joint committee, a joint authority, F42an economic prosperity board, a combined authorityF68... F60, F51a combined county authority,F61a fire and rescue authority created by an order under section 4A of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, a police and crime commissioner and the Mayor's Office for Policing and CrimeF81... F31....

In the application of subsection (1) to a corporate joint committee, the reference to the corporate joint committee’s area is to be read as a reference to the area specified as the corporate joint committee’s area in regulations under Part 5 of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 establishing the corporate joint committee.

This section shall apply to a public notice required to be given by the chairman of a parish meeting as it applies to public notices required to be given by a parish council.

The Welsh Ministers may by regulations make further or different provision about the manner of giving a public notice required to be given by a local authority in Wales.

A statutory instrument containing regulations under subsection (3) must not be made unless a draft of the instrument has been laid before and approved by resolution of Senedd Cymru.

Subject to subsection (8) below, subsections (2) to (5) below shall have effect in relation to any notice, order or other document required or authorised by or under any enactment to be given to or served on any person by or on behalf of a local authority or by an officer of a local authority.

Any such document may be given to or served on the person in question either by delivering it to him, or by leaving it at his proper address, or by sending it by post to him at that address.

If the person to be given or served with any document mentioned in subsection (1) above has specified an address within the United Kingdom other than his proper address within the meaning of subsection (4) above as the one at which he or someone on his behalf will accept documents of the same description as that document, that address shall also be treated for the purposes of this section and section 26 of the M5Interpretation Act 1889 as his proper address.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

If the name or address of any owner, lessee or occupier of land to or on whom any document mentioned in subsection (1) above is to be given or served cannot after reasonable inquiry be ascertained, the document may be given or served either by leaving it in the hands of a person who is or appears to be resident or employed on the land or by leaving it conspicuously affixed to some building or object on the land.

This section shall apply to a document required or authorised by or under any enactment to be given to or served on any person by or on behalf of the chairman of a parish meeting as it applies to a document so required or authorised to be given to or served on any person by or on behalf of a local authority.

The foregoing provisions of this section do not apply to a document which is to be given or served in any proceedings in court.

Except as aforesaid and subject to any provision of any enactment or instrument excluding the foregoing provisions of this section, the methods of giving or serving documents which are available under those provisions are in addition to the methods which are available under any other enactment or any instrument made under any enactment.

In this section “local authority” includes a joint authority, F43an economic prosperity board, a combined authority, F63a combined county authority,F57a fire and rescue authority created by an order under section 4A of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004,F75... F47, a police and crime commissioner and the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime . . . F34. . ..

Any notice, order or other document which a local authority are authorised or required by or under any enactment (including any enactment in this Act) to give, make or issue may be signed on behalf of the authority by the proper officer of the authority.

Any document purporting to bear the signature of the proper officer of the authority shall be deemed, until the contrary is proved, to have been duly given, made or issued by the authority of the local authority.

In this subsection the word “signature” includes a facsimile of a signature by whatever process reproduced.

Where any enactment or instrument made under an enactment makes, in relation to any document or class of documents, provision with respect to the matters dealt with by one of the two foregoing subsections, that subsection shall not apply in relation to that document or class of documents.

In this section “local authority” includes F87a corporate joint committee, a joint authority, F44an economic prosperity board, a combined authority, F52a combined county authority,F66a fire and rescue authority created by an order under section 4A of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004,F64... F76, a police and crime commissioner and the Mayor's Office for Policing and CrimeF92... F36....