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Lords Amendment No, 7: In page 16, line 8, leave out from "report" to "and" in line 9 and insert:
to the licensing authority their findings and advice and the reasons for their advice".
§ Mr. K. RobinsonI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
§ Mr. SpeakerWith this Amendment I suggest that we take all the Amendments up to No. 17, Amendment No. 19, and Amendments Nos. 156–165, all of which are akin.
§ Mr. RobinsonThe purpose of Amendments Nos. 7–16 is to improve the procedure under the Clause relating to the grant or refusal of licences under Clause 20, by ensuring that reasons are given in certain cases where this is not explicitly provided in the Bill as drafted and by making some additional requirements about the hearing of representations made to the licensing authority.
Briefly, the Amendments provide, first, that the appropriate committee or the commission will now give advice or findings and advice throughout, together with the reasons for the advice, which the licensing authority must notify to the applicant or licence holder at all stages where he has the opportunity to request a hearing or make written representations.
Second, the person appointed by the licensing authority to hold a hearing under 780 Clause 21(5) is not to be an employee of the Health or Agriculture Departments unless the applicant agrees.
Third, the hearing by such a person is to be in public if the applicant so requests, and a copy of his report is to be furnished to the applicant if he requests it. Later Amendments make similar changes in other parts of the Bill.
Thus, the applicant or licence holder will know at all stages the reasons for the adverse advice or the proposed adverse decision. The final decision itself will be reasoned, and the applicant will not be left in ignorance of the relevant particulars if he wishes to consider applying to the High Court under Clause 99 questioning the authority's decision on the grounds there provided.
As regards publicity, the Amendments do not propose that hearings should automatically be in public or that the report of the person appointed should be published in the Press, because they may well concern matters which the applicant would regard as confidential. For example, he might not wish his competitors to become aware of his plans to market a new product.
The important point is that the aggrieved party should be fully informed of the relevant matters. I am sure that the House will regard these as valuable improvements to the Bill.
§ Mr. DeanI do not propose to thank the right hon. Gentleman every time for meeting points which we put from this side, for otherwise I might well be accused of tedious repetition. We very much welcome this change in the Bill. When one is dealing with matters of great importance such as the grant or refusal of a licence, it is only right that those concerned should know the reasons which are given.
§ Mr. Dudley Smith (Warwick and Leamington)The industry at large will, I am sure, regard these Amendments as eminently sensible. The factor of greatest importance in relation to the Bill is that there should be a sense of fair play and that justice should be seen to be done. I am sure that the Amendments will go some way towards meeting that requirement.
As the right hon. Gentleman knows, I have an interest to declare here, but I 781 am sure that it is in the interests also of his late Ministry and of the new Department as well as of the whole pharmaceutical industry and others concerned that there should be such an arrangement as is now proposed.
§ Mr. Scott-HopkinsI also welcome what the right hon. Gentleman has done. I have one question only. The applicant is to have the right to request a public hearing if he wishes. Does the same apply to the person appointed if he should consider that it is in the public interest to have a public hearing? May
| " B.—(1) Subject to the following provisions of this Act, no person shall, in the course of a business carried on by him— | |
| (a) sell or supply any medicinal product for the purposes of a medicinal test on animals, or | |
| 5 | (b) procure the sale or supply of any medicinal product for the purposes of such a test, or |
| (c) procure the manufacture or assembly of any medicinal product for sale or supply for the purposes of such a test, | |
| 10 | unless one or other of the conditions specified in the next following subsection is fulfilled. |
| (2) Those conditions, in relation to a person doing any of the things specified in the preceding subsection, are— | |
| 15 | (a) that he is the holder of a product licence which authorises the test in question, or he does it to the order of the holder of such a licence, and (in either case) he does it in accordance with that licence; |
| 20 | (b) that a certificate for the purposes of this section (in this Act referred to as an 'animal test certificate') has been issued certifying that, subject to the provisions of the certificate, the licensing authority have consented to the test in question and that certificate is for the time being in force and the test is to be carried out in accordance with that certificate. |
| 25 | (3) Subject to the following provisions of this Act, no person shall import any medicinal product for the purposes of a medicinal test on animals unless either— |
| 30 | (a) he is the holder of a product licence which authorises that test, or imports the product to the order of the holder of such a licence, and (in either case) he imports it in accordance with that licence, or |
| 35 | (b) an animal test certificate has been issued certifying as mentioned in subsection (2)(b) of this section and that certificate is for the time being in force and the test is to be carried out in accordance with that certificate. |
| 40 | (4) Subject to the following provisions of this Act, no person shall, in the course of a business carried on by him, administer any substance or article to an animal by way of a medicinal test on animals, or procure any substance or article to be so administered, unless either— |
| 45 | (a) in the case of a medicinal product, there is in force a product licence (whether held by him or by another person) which authorises that test and the product is administered in accordance with that licence or in accordance with any instructions required by the licence to be communicated to the person carrying out the test, or |
| 50 | (b) whether the substance or article is a medicinal product or not, an animal test certificate has been issued certifying as mentioned in subsection (2)(b) of this section |
§ he in his own right decide that there should be such public hearing?
§ Mr. K. RobinsonNo; it is a one-sided option.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Subsequent Lords Amendments agreed to.