§ MR. CALDWELL (Lanarkshire, Mid.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that, under the law relating to the sale of scheduled poisons, an unqualified assistant of a medical man or of a registered chemist is prohibited from selling poisons, under penalty of a fine, but that no penalty is attached to the employer for any offence committed by such unqualified assistant; whether he is aware that, in the case of registered medical practitioners, the General Council of Medical Education and Registration of the United Kingdom have given notice that they will treat as infamous conduct in a professional respect, and have the name erased from the Medical Register, under the 29th section of the Medical Act, 1868, any medical practitioner who may leave an unqualified assistant in charge of their medical halls or open shops, whilst no penalty is attached to the registered chemist who employs an unqualified assistant should that assistant sell scheduled poisons; whether it is within the power of the General Council to declare the employment of an unqualified assistant to be infamous conduct in a professional respect under the Medical Acts; and, if so, whether he will introduce legislation which will equally punish a registered chemist who may similarly employ an unqualified assistant, seeing that the danger to the public is equally the same whether the unqualified assistant be that of a medical practitioner or of a registered chemist.
§ MR. JESSE COLLINGSMy right hon. friend understands that, under the Pharmacy Acts, 1868 and 1869, any person who, not being a chemist or a qualified medical practitioner, sells poison, is liable to prosecution, but that 181 there is no provision in those Acts for making the employer responsible for the acts of his apprentice or assistant except in the case of a breach of the regulations to be observed in the sale of poisons. As my right hon. friend has said, in answer to another Question, the powers of the General Medical Council as to deciding what is or what is not "infamous conduct in a professional respect" under the Medical Act are governed by the terms of that Act, and the decisions there under, and the Secretary of State for the Home Department has no authority to interpret them. As regards the last paragraph of the Question, the subject of the sale of poisons is now being considered by a Committee, whose recommendations must be awaited before any decision as to the legislation suggested can be arrived at.