Consolidated Fund Act
A Consolidated Fund Act is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed to allow, like an Appropriation Act, the Treasury to issue funds out of the Consolidated Fund.
The typical structure of such an Act begins with the long title, which defines which financial years the Act applies to. This is followed by the enacting clause, which is different from the normal British public general Act of Parliament preamble in that it includes additional text before the standard clause:
Until 2000 an older form of preamble was used:
If, as most of the Acts do, the legislation covers two fiscal years the legislation's first two sections will contain the amounts to be paid out of the Consolidated Fund for each particular financial year. The third section of the Act defines its short title. Typically two or three consolidated fund Acts are passed each calendar year.
A Consolidated Fund Act normally becomes spent on the conclusion of the financial year to which it relates.
