HC Deb 18 October 1968 vol 770 cc829-30

Lords Amendment No. 147: In page 109, line 21, at end insert new Clause ''O": O.—(1) In this Act any reference to selling anything by way of wholesale dealing is a reference to selling it to a person as being a person who buys it for one or more of the purposes specified in subsection (2) of this section, except that it does not include arty such sale by the person who manufactured it. (2) The purposes referred to in the preceding subsection, in relation to a person to whom anything is sold, are the purposes of—

  1. (a) selling or supplying it, or
  2. (b) administering it or causing it to be administered to one or more human beings,
in the course of a business carried on by that person. (3) In this Act any reference to selling by retail, or to retail sale, is a reference to selling a substance or article to a person as being a person who buys it otherwise than for a purpose specified in subsection (2) of this section. (4) In this Act any references to supplying anything in circumstances corresponding to retail sale is a reference to supplying it, otherwise than by way of sale, to a person as being a person who receives it for a purpose other than that of—
  1. (a) selling or supplying it, or
  2. (b) administering it or causing it to be administered to one or more human beings,
in the course of a business carried on by that person. (5) For the purposes of this section the provision of services by or on behalf of the Minister of Health, the Secretary of State or the Ministry of Health and Social Services for Northern Ireland under the National Health Service Act 1946, the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1947 or the Health Services Acts (Northern Ireland) 1948 to 1967 shall be treated as the carrying on of a business by that Minister, the Secretary of State or that Ministry, as the case may be.

Mr. Deputy Speaker

It would be convenient, at the same time, to take Lords Amendment No. 152.

2.0 p.m.

Mr. Snow

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.

The definitions of "wholesale" and "retail" in Clause 118(3) of the Bill as drafted have been found to be defective in not covering the sale to a person who purchases a medicinal product with the object of supplying it otherwise than by way of sale. The new Clause remedies that.

Furthermore, we have decided that it is better to use the exemption powers already existing in Clauses 15 and 30 to allow practitioners to buy both from wholesalers and from retailers the products used in their professional practice, without altering the status under the Bill of their suppliers as wholesalers or retailers. The new Clause accordingly omits the provisions in the earlier definitions which made a sale to a practitioner neither wholesale nor retail.

Amendment 152 deletes Clause 118(3) which the new Clause is designed to replace and it is, therefore, purely consequential.

Question put and agreed to.

Subsequent Lords Amendments agreed to.

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