Water Resources Act 1963
1963 c.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.
[31st July 1963] 
Part I Functions of Ministers in relation to Water Resources
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1 

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2 

Part II River Authorities and Water Resources Board
 River authorities

3 

(1)—(4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
(5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
(6), (7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
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4—15. 


16 

(1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
(2)(3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
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17 

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18 

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19 

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20 


21 

(1), (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
(3),(4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
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22—32. 

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33—35. 

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36—55. 

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56 

Part V Charges For Licences To Abstract Or Impound Water
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57—59. 

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60 

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61, 62. 

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63, 64 

Part VI Powers of River Authorities in Relation to Land and Works
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65—70. 


71 
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(1),(2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
(3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
(4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
(5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
(6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
Part VII Additional Functions of River Authorities
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72 

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73 

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74 

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75 

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76 

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77 

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78 

 Byelaws for protection of water resources.
79 

(1) Section 18 of the Water Act 1945 (which empowers statutory water undertakers to make byelaws for the purpose of protecting water against pollution) shall have effect for enabling byelaws to be made under that section by water authorities.
(2) For the purposes of the application of that section by virtue of the preceding subsection—
(a) any reference to statutory water undertakers shall be construed as a reference to a water authority, and any reference to the undertakers shall be construed as a reference to the water authority by whom the byelaws are made;
(b) the reference in subsection (1) of that section to water which belongs to statutory water undertakers or which they are for the time being authorised to take shall be construed as a reference to any such water as is mentioned in section 68(1) of this Act; and
(c) in subsection (5) the words “and subsection (2) of the next but one following section of this Act” shall be omitted.
(3)—(6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
(7) No byelaw made by virtue of section 18 of the Water Act 1945 as applied by subsection (1) of this section shall conflict or interfere with the operation of any byelaw made by a navigation authority, harbour authority or conservancy authority.
(8),(9) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
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80 

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81, 82. 

Part VIII Financial Provisions
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83—87. 

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88 

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89, 90. 

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91 

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92 


93 
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(1)(2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
(3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
(4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
Part IX
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94—100. 

Part X Miscellaneous and Supplementary Provisions
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101—104. 

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105 

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106 

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107, 108. 

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109 

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110 

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111—113. 

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114—118. 

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119 

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120 

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121 

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122 

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123 

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124, 125. 


126 

(1)(2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
(3) Without prejudice to the last preceding subsection, the provisions of this Act relating to the new functions of water authorities shall not apply to so much of any inland waters as—
(a) is part of the River Tweed, or
(b) is part of the River Esk or of the river Sark or of any tributary stream of the River Esk or River Sark at a point where either of the banks of either of those rivers or of any such tributary stream is in Scotland.
(4) In this section “the River Tweed” means the “the river” as defined by the Tweed Fisheries Amendment Act 1859 and any byelaw amending that defination.
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127 


128 

(1)(2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
(3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
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129 

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130 

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131, 132. 

 Repeal, amendment and adaptation of local enactments.
133 

(1) If it appears to the Minister that any local enactment passed or made before the second appointed day is inconsistent with any of the provisions of this Act, or with anything done in the performance of any functions under this Act, or requires to be amended or adapted, having regard to any of the provisions of this Act or to anything done in the performance of any of those functions, he may by order repeal, amend or adapt that enactment to such extent, or in such manner, as he considers appropriate.
(2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
(3) Any order under this section may include such transitional, incidental, supplementary and consequential provisions as the Minister or Ministers may consider necessary or expedient.
(4) The provisions of this section shall have effect without prejudice to the exercise of any other power to repeal, amend or adapt local enactments which is conferred by any other enactment, including any enactment contained in this Act.
 Regulations and orders.
134 

(1),(2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
(3) Any power conferred by this Act to make an order shall include power to vary or revoke the order by a subsequent order.
(4) Any power to make orders under this Act shall be exercisable by statutory instrument: . . . 
(5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
(6) Any statutory instrument containing—
(a), (b) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
(c) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
(d) an order under the last preceding section,
shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament: . . . 
 Interpretation.
135 

(1) In this Act, except in so far as the context otherwise requires, the following expressions have the meanings hereby assigned to them respectively, that is to say:—
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 “local enactment” means a local or private Act, a public general Act relating to London, an order or scheme made under an Act or confirmed by Parliament or brought into operation in accordance with special parliamentary procedure, or an enactment in a public general Act amending a local or private Act or any such order or scheme;
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 “performance”, in relation to functions, includes the exercise of powers as well as the performance of duties, and “perform” shall be construed accordingly;
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 “repeal”, in relation to a local enactment not contained in an Act, means revoke;
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(2),(3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
(4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
(5)—(8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
(9) Except in so far as the context otherwise requires, any reference in this Act to an enactment shall be construed as a reference to that enactment as amended or extended by or under any other enactment, including this Act.
 Amendments and repeals.
136 

(1)—(3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
(4) The repeal of the enactments specified in Part II of Schedule 14 to this Act—
(a) shall not affect the operation of any statutory provision made or issued by virtue of any of those enactments before the end of the initial period, whether before or after the passing of this Act, and
(b) shall not prevent the making or issuing of any such statutory provision in pursuance of an application made to a Minister before the end of that period, whether before or after the passing of this Act, or otherwise affect any proceedings in consequence of such an application.
(5), (6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
 Short title and extent.
137 

(1) This Act may be cited as the Water Resources Act 1963.
(2) This Act, except—
(a) sections . . . and 126 thereof . . . , and
(b) any provision of this Act in so far as it affects the operation of the enactments mentioned in section 126 (1) of this Act in accordance with that subsection or in so far as it affects the operation of the Border Rivers (Prevention of Pollution) Act 1951,
shall not extend to Scotland.
(3) This Act . . .  shall not extend to Northern Ireland.
 SCHEDULES
SCHEDULES 1—6

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SCHEDULE 7
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SCHEDULES 8, 9
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SCHEDULE 10
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SCHEDULES 11—14

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