National Heritage (Scotland) Act 1985

Part IS National Museums of Scotland

StatusS

1SThe Board of Trustees of the National Museums of Scotland shall be a body corporate.

2(1)Subject to sub-paragraph (3), the Board shall not be regarded as the servant or agent of the Crown or as enjoying any status, immunity or privilege of the Crown.S

(2)The trustees and their staff shall not be regarded as Crown servants and the Board’s property shall not, subject to section 20 of this Act, be regarded as property of, or held on behalf of, the Crown.

(3)Where, in relation to any matter, the Board act by virtue of a direction under section 2(3), the Board shall enjoy the same privileges, immunities and exemptions as those enjoyed in relation to that matter by the Secretary of State.

(4)Subject to section 20 of this Act and to any other enactment the Board shall not be exempt from any tax, duty, rate, levy or other charge whatever (whether general or local).

MembershipS

3(1)The Board shall consist of not less than 9 and not more than 15 members (referred to in this part of this Schedule as “trustees”).S

(2)The trustees shall be appointed by the Secretary of State, who shall appoint one of them to be chairman.

(3)In appointing any trustee the Secretary of State shall have regard to the desirability of the person’s having knowledge or experience of agricultural, archaeological, architectural, artistic, cultural, environmental, historical, industrial, military, scientific or social matters, or of management, industrial relations, or administration or of any other subject knowledge or experience of which would be of use to the Board in exercising their functions.

(4)The Secretary of State shall include amongst the trustees at least one Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

(5)Subject to the following provisions of this paragraph, a trustee or chairman shall hold office in accordance with the terms of his appointment, but no trustee shall be appointed for a period of more than 4 years.

(6)A chairman or trustee may resign his office by notice in writing to the Secretary of State.

(7)If a chairman ceases to be a trustee he shall also cease to be chairman.

(8)A person who ceases to be a trustee, or ceases to be chairman, shall be eligible for re-appointment.

StaffS

4(1)There shall be a Director of the National Museums of Scotland who shall be appointed by the Board with the approval of the Secretary of State.S

(2)The Director shall be responsible to the Board for the general exercise of their functions.

(3)The Board may appoint such other employees as the Board think fit.

(4)The employees shall be appointed on such terms and conditions as the Board may determine.

(5)A determination under sub-paragraph (4) shall be subject to the approval of the Secretary of State F1. . ..

(6)Employment with the Board shall be included among the kinds of employment to which a scheme under section 1 of the M1Superannuation Act 1972 can apply, and accordingly in Schedule 1 to that Act (in which those kinds of employment are listed) “ National Museums of Scotland ” shall be inserted in place of “National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland”.

5(1)The Board shall make, not later than such date as the Secretary of State may determine, an offer of employment by the Board to each person employed immediately before that date for the purposes of the institutions comprising the National Museums of Scotland.S

(2)The terms of the offer shall be such that they are, taken as a whole, not less favourable to the person to whom the offer is made than the terms on which he is employed on the date on which the offer is made.

(3)In determining whether the terms of the offer are more or less favourable to that person than those enjoyed by him on the date of the offer no account shall be taken of the fact that employment with the Board is not employment in the service of the Crown.

(4)An offer made in pursuance of this paragraph shall not be revocable during the period of 3 months commencing with the date on which it is made.c. 44.

(5)Where a person becomes an employee of the Board in consequence of this paragraph, then, for the purposes of [F2the Employment Rights Act 1996], his period of employment in the civil service of the State or, as the case may be, for the purposes of the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, shall count as a period of employment by the Board, and the change of employment shall not break the continuity of the period of employment.

(6)Where an offer is made to any person employed as mentioned in sub-paragraph (1) in pursuance of this paragraph, none of the agreed redundancy procedures applicable to such persons shall apply to him; and if he ceases to be so employed—

(a)on becoming a member of the staff of the Board in consequence of this paragraph; or

(b)having unreasonably refused an offer made to him in pursuance of this paragraph, he shall not be treated for the purposes of any scheme under section 1 of the M2Superannuation Act 1972 as having been retired on redundancy.

(7)Without prejudice to sub-paragraph (6) above, where a person in the civil service of the State has unreasonably refused an offer made to him in pursuance of this paragraph, the Secretary of State shall not terminate that person’s employment unless he has first had regard to the feasibility of employing him in a suitable alternative position in the civil service.

(8)Where a person continues in employment in the civil service either—

(a)not having unreasonably refused an offer made to him in pursuance of this paragraph, or

(b)having been placed in a suitable alternative position as mentioned in sub-paragraph (7) above,he shall be treated for all purposes as if the offer mentioned in sub-paragraph (1) had not been made.

(9)Any dispute arising under this paragraph as to whether or not the terms of any employment offered by the Board are, taken as a whole, less favourable than those applying to a person’s employment immediately prior to the making of the offer mentioned in sub-paragraph (1) shall be referred to and determined by an [F3employment tribunal].

(10)An [F3employment tribunal] shall not consider a complaint whereby a dispute mentioned in sub-paragraph (9) is referred to it unless the complaint is presented to the tribunal before the end of the period of 3 months beginning with the date of the offer of employment or within such further period as the tribunal considers reasonable in a case where it is satisfied that it was not reasonably practicable for the complaint to be presented before the end of the period of 3 months.

(11)An appeal shall lie to the Employment Appeal Tribunal on a question of law arising from any decision of, or arising in proceedings before, an [F3employment tribunal] under this paragraph; and no appeal shall lie except to the Employment Appeal Tribunal from any decision of an [F3employment tribunal] under this paragraph.

ProceedingsS

6(1)The Board may regulate their own procedure (including, subject to sub-paragraph (8), quorum).S

(2)In doing so, they may make arrangements for any of their functions, other than the power to acquire or dispose of land, to be discharged by committees.

(3)Any committee shall be appointed, and may be dissolved, by the Board.

(4)A committee may include as members persons who are not trustees, but the chairman must be a trustee.

(5)A committee shall act in accordance with such directions as the Board may make from time to time.

(6)The arrangements may provide for anything done by a committee to have effect as if done by the Board.

(7)The quorum for meetings of the Board shall not at any time be less than 4.

(8)The validity of any proceedings of the Board shall not be affected by any vacancy among the trustees or by any defect in the appointment of any trustee.

AllowancesS

7SThe Board may pay to each of the trustees and the members of any committee such reasonable allowances in respect of expenses or loss of remuneration as the Secretary of State may determine F4. . ..

InstrumentsS

F58S. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

AccountsS

9(1)The Board shall keep proper accounts and proper records in relation to them.S

(2)The Board shall prepare, in accordance with the best commercial practice, a statement of accounts in respect of each financial year.

(3)The statement shall comply with any directions given by the Secretary of State F6. . . as to the information to be contained in the statement, the manner in which the information is to be presented or the methods and principles according to which the statement is to be prepared.

(4)The Board shall send the statement to the Secretary of State at such time as he may direct.

(5)The Secretary of State shall, F7. . . send to the [F8Auditor Generalfor Scotland for auditing] the statement prepared by the Board under sub-paragraph (2) for the financial year last ended.

F9(6). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(7)In this paragraph “financial year” means the period commencing with vesting day and ending with the second 31st March following that day, and each successive period of 12 months.

ReportsS

10(1)The Board shall make to the Secretary of State a report on the exercise of their functions since the last report was made or (in the case of the first) since the Board’s establishment.S

(2)The first report shall be made not later than the expiry of the period of 3 years (or such shorter period as the Secretary of State may direct) commencing with the day of the Board’s establishment.

(3)Each subsequent report shall be made not later than 3 years (or such shorter period as the Secretary of State may direct) since the last was made.

(4)Each report shall include a statement of the action taken by the Board to enable disabled members of the public to use any services or facilities provided by the Board.

(5)Each report shall include a statement of the total amount received by the Board by way of admission charges in the period covered by the report, and shall include information (in such detail as the Board thinks fit) about rates of, exemptions from, reductions in and the effect of admission charges made by the Board.

(6)The Secretary of State shall lay a copy of each report before each House of Parliament.

(7)The Board shall furnish the Secretary of State with such information relating to their property and the discharge and proposed discharge of their functions as he may require and for that purpose they shall permit any person authorised by him to inspect and make copies of any accounts or documents of the Board and shall give such explanation of them as that person or the Secretary of State may require.