{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/land-drainage-scotland-act-1958/section-8",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/land-drainage-scotland-act-1958/section-8.json",
  "legislation": "ukpga/Eliz2/6-7/24",
  "legislation_title": "Land Drainage (Scotland) Act 1958",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/land-drainage-scotland-act-1958",
  "path": "section/8",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "8",
  "heading": "Secretary of State may require execution or maintenance of works.",
  "text": "(1) Where the Secretary of State is satisfied—\n(a) that in consequence of the execution of any drainage works specified in an improvement order the execution of any protective works specified in such order is necessary for the protection of any land, and that the protective works necessary for that purpose have not been executed, or have not been properly executed, by the authorised persons;\n(b) that, where a grant has been made under the next following section in respect of the cost of improvement under such an order, any drainage works executed in pursuance of such order are not being maintained in a good and effective condition, or that any protective works executed in pursuance of such an order continue to be necessary for the protection of any endangered land and are not being so maintained;\nhe may serve on the authorised persons a notice requiring them, within such reasonable period as may be specified in the notice, not being less than four weeks, to take such steps as may be specified therein for the purpose of executing or properly executing or, as the case may be, maintaining such works as may be specified therein, and stating that those persons may, within twenty-one days of the service of the notice, make representations to the Secretary of State against the requirements thereof; and the Secretary of State shall consider any representations so made and may thereafter withdraw the notice or confirm it.\n(2) Where the requirements of any notice served under this section, against which no representations have been made as aforesaid, or of any such notice which has been confirmed as aforesaid, have not been complied with, the Secretary of State may himself take the steps specified in the notice, and for the purpose of taking such steps shall have and may exercise any of the powers conferred by the improvement order on the authorised persons.\n(3) The Secretary of State may recover from the authorised persons the reasonable cost of taking any such steps as aforesaid, and any question arising under this subsection as to what is the reasonable cost of taking any such steps shall be determined, in default of agreement, by the Land Court.\n(4) Anything done under subsection (2) of this section by the Secretary of State shall, for the purposes of this Act other than this section, be deemed to have been done by the authorised persons in the discharge of their functions under the improvement order in question.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Eliz2/6-7/24/section/8",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T11:13:07.221415+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}