§ [The references are to Bill 88 as first printed for the House of Commons]
§
Clause 3, page 3, line 37, at end, insert—
("(4) Regulations so made may provide, in relation to such cases as may be specified and subject to such exceptions as may be allowed by or under the regulations, that where any food is certified by a public analyst as being food to which the regulations apply so far as they are made under paragraph (c) of subsection (1) of this section that food may be treated for the purposes of section ten of the principal Act (which enables food to be seized and condemned on the order of a magistrate) as being unfit for human consumption:
Provided that nothing in any such regulations shall be taken as prejudicing the generality of the powers conferred by the said section ten.")
§ VISCOUNT WOOLTONMy Lords, I am obliged to the noble and learned Earl for the suggestion he wade. I am sure it will be for our convenience and that notice will be taken of it. Perhaps we may see how it goes. I think the line I was proposing is very much the line the noble Lord, Lord Silkin, was suggesting, and if it is not, then we will do what we can to meet your Lordships. To this Amendment to Clause 3 the Amendments to the 1686 Second Schedule, headed "Section 10" and "Section 12," will be consequential. Clause 3 empowers the Ministers of Food and Health to make regulations controlling the composition of food. The first Amendment enables the Ministers to provide in such regulations that food not complying with the regulations may be treated as unfit for human consumption for the purposes of Section 10 of the 1938 Act, which empowers local authority officers to seize food which in their opinion is unfit for human consumption and to bring it before a magistrate for condemnation.
The Amendment is required because without it food containing prohibited preservatives or prohibited quantities of injurious substances cannot be seized. The only course open is to prosecute the distributors after the food has gone into circulation. A recent example occurred in the case of oranges containing a substance called thiourea. I will not weary your Lordships with the description of that substance about which I am not very clear. This Amendment, with the Amendment to the Second Schedule, page 31, line 34, will enable injurious food to be seized at the port. The second Amendment extends the powers conferred by Sections 10 and 12 of the 1938 Act to officers of port health authorities. Section 10 empowers an authorised officer of a local authority to seize food intended for but unfit for human consumption and to bring it before a magistrate who, if he agrees with the officer is required to order the food to be destroyed. Section 12 provides powers for the examination of food in transit. The extension is made by substituting the word "council" for the words "local authority," and "council" is elsewhere defined as including a port health authority. I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in the said Amendment.
§ Moved, That this House doth agree with the Commons in the said Amendment.—(Viscount Woolton.)
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.