§ Order of the Day for the Second Heading read.
§ EARL DE LA WARRMy Lords, I think you will find that this Bill is completely non-contentious. It concerns itself with the regulation of the manufacture and sale of all vaccines, sera and other therapeutic substances, notably salvarsan, insulin and pituitary extracts. These substances share one quality, and that is that they do not admit of chemical tests. It is essential that there should be some unified standard. It is essential that a doctor, when writing a prescription, should be sure that the patient will have what he intends him to have. The leading foreign countries have passed legislation to regulate this matter. It is intended in the Bill that these vaccines, sera and other therapeutic substances should be sold through recognised agents only, and that they should be sold and manufactured under the control of regulations drawn up by the British public health authorities.
There is not likely to be any opposition from the trade, because it would be very largely a measure of protection for them. Your Lordships may have realised that at the present moment consignments that have been rejected by such 189 countries as Denmark, France and the United States, as not being good enough for those countries, can yet be sent here and be dumped in competition with our own high-grade manufactures. Furthermore, it is very probable that the League of Nations is about to bring into effect an agreement amongst its Members with regard to regulating this matter internationally, and were we not to pass this Bill, and to standardise our goods, our manufactures would be automatically cut off from the markets in those countries that have agreed to the suggestion of the League of Nations. I beg to move that the Bill be read a second time.
§ Moved, That the Bill be now read 2a.—(Earl De La Warr.)
§ THE EARL OF DARTMOUTHWill the noble Earl tell us what a therapeutic substance is?
§ EARL DE LA WARRThe three sub-, stances that come under that heading in this Bill are salvarsan, insulin and pituitary extracts.
§ EARL BEAUCHAMPMy Lords, I rise to congratulate the Government upon this Bill, and to express my special gratification with regard to Clause 2. Your Lordships may remember that on previous occasions I have discussed the manufacture and import into this country of somewhat similar articles of a more deleterious character, and it is far better, I think, that we should try to stop them at the place where they are manufactured rather than at the ports where they come in. It is obviously an easy thing to import a very great deal of cocaine without the Customs officers seeing it, and if we really wish to prevent these things being sold in this country it is far better to strike at the place of origin, which is the place of manufacture. That is why I am glad to see that the Government takes special power to prevent the importation into this country of these substances, unless they come up to a certain standard.
I hope that the phrase in which the noble Earl referred to the possibility of the League of Nations taking action may also be taken to include the manufacture of poisons. If not, I would suggest that that is a matter which should be considered at the same time, because it is, 190 perhaps, even more important than the manufacture of these therapeutic substances. If at the League of Nations it is decided to place the manufacture under surveillance, then it will be very easy to prevent these things, which are even more deleterious than the substances to which the noble Lord particularly referred, from being imported into this country. At the same time, under the Bill it will be possible to insist that the standard of goods coming here in this way should be as high as the articles which we ourselves manufacture in this country.
THE EARL OF ONSLOWMy Lords, I should like to offer one word of congratulation to the noble Earl who introduced this Bill, which is almost identical in its terms with the Bill which was introduced by the late Government last year. That Bill only went so far as the Second Beading, but I think that if circumstances had permitted it would have passed into law, because I do not think there was any opposition to it—at any rate, no serious opposition. The noble Earl has given us an additional reason why this measure should become law—namely, the proposed action of the League of Nations. That additional reason did not exist when I introduced the Bill last year, and I trust that it will induce the Government to do all they can to pass this present measure. I have had letters from people—I suppose they thought the Bill of last year was a private Bill—hoping that it would be introduced again. Therefore, on their behalf I am very glad that the noble Earl has been able to introduce the Bill.
THE EARL OF CRAWFORDMy Lords, the first paragraph of the Schedule seems to carry the Bill a good deal further than the noble Earl indicated because it-says it applies to vaccines, sera, toxins, antitoxins and antigens, as well as the three substances he specifically mentioned. I only want to raise two points, and I shall not ask for an answer at the present juncture, but, in Committee, the noble Earl may be able to answer them. With regard to Clause 2, which prohibits the manufacture of these articles except by persons who have obtained licences. I should like to know if a licence will be granted to everybody who satisfies the Advisory Committee that he is competent to manufacture the article in question.
191 In the second place, I really cannot understand why a Committee—a Joint Advisory Committee—should have upon it the Minister of Health, the Secretary for Scotland, and the Minister of Home Affairs for Northern Ireland. They are utterly and entirely incompetent to deal with the matters laid down in Clause 5. They are so utterly and entirely incompetent that provision is made for them to have substitutes in the event of their not being present themselves. Is it not much simpler that these political officers should at the outset appoint properly qualified people, and not pretend that it is their function to attend these Committees? It is impossible that the Secretary for Scotland, for instance, whatever his politics, can have any knowledge of the matters mentioned in Clause 5. I hope that in Committee the noble Earl will be able to give me an answer on these points that I have raised.
§ On Question, Bill read 2a, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.
§ EARL DE LA WARRMy Lords, I do not know when it will be convenient to your Lordships to go into Committee on this Rill, but I suggest that Thursday next will be a suitable day.