Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949

PART III Supplemental

19 Control of methods of destruction of pests, and c

(1) The Minister may make regulations for controlling the methods for keeping down or destroying rats, mice, insects or mites which may be used by persons carrying on business in the provision of services for that purpose ; and such regulations may in particular—

(a) approve different methods for use in different circumstances ;

(b) prohibit the use by persons to whom the regulations apply of any method other than a method so approved.

(2) Any person who fails to comply with regulations made under this section shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding in the case of a first offence one hundred pounds, and in the case of a second or any subsequent offence two hundred pounds.

20 Amendment of Agriculture Act, 1947

(1) No notice served after the commencement of this Act under section ninety-eight of the Agriculture Act, 1947 (which enables the Minister to require the destruction of animals to which that section applies) shall require any person to take any steps which he could have been required to take by a notice served under section four of this Act; but nothing in this subsection shall affect the provisions of section one hundred and one of the said Act of 1947 as to the rendering by the Minister of assistance in the destruction of animals to which the said section ninety-eight applies and the recovery by the Minister of any charge made in respect of any such assistance.

(2) The purposes for which the Minister may exercise his powers under the said section one hundred and one shall include the rendering of assistance in the prevention or treatment of any infestation.

(3) In the application of this section to Scotland, for references to sections ninety-eight and one hundred and one of the Agriculture Act, 1947, there shall respectively be substituted references to sections thirty-nine and forty-two of the Agriculture (Scotland) Act, 1948.

21 Regulations

(1) Any power of the Minister to make regulations under this Act, and the power of the Minister to give general directions under section twelve of this Act and to make orders under section eighteen of this Act, shall be exercisable by statutory instrument.

(2) Any statutory instrument containing an Order in Council or regulations made under this Act shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

22 Powers of entry

(1) Any person duly authorised in writing by a local authority for the purposes of Part I of this Act, or by a person empowered by the Minister to exercise functions of a local authority under that Part, may, at any reasonable time, enter upon any land—

(a) for the purpose of carrying out any inspection required by the said Part I to be carried out by the local authority;

(b) for the purpose of ascertaining whether there is or has been on or in connection with the land, any failure to comply with any requirement of the said Part I or of any notice served thereunder;

(c) for the purpose of taking any steps authorised by section five or section six of this Act to be taken by the local authority on or in relation to the land.

(2) Any person duly authorised in writing by the Minister, or by a local authority to whom functions of the Minister under Part II of this Act are delegated, may, at any reasonable time, enter upon any land—

(a) for the purpose of ascertaining whether there is or has been, on or in connection with the land or any vehicle thereon, any failure to comply with any requirement of the said Part II or of any directions given thereunder;

(b) for the purpose of taking any steps authorised to be taken on or in relation to the land under the said Part II by a person named in an order made by the Minister or by that authority thereunder,

and where any such person has entered on any premises for the purposes specified in paragraph (a) of this subsection, he may take samples of any food found on those premises.

(3) Any person authorised under this section to enter upon any land shall, if so required, produce evidence of his authority before so entering, and shall not demand admission as of right to any land which is occupied unless twenty-four hours' notice of the intended entry has been given to the occupier.

(4) Any person who wilfully obstructs a person acting in the exercise of his powers under this section shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding in the case of a first offence five pounds, and in the case of a second or any subsequent offence twenty pounds.

(5) If any person who, in compliance with the provisions of this section, is admitted into a factory, workshop or work place, discloses to any person any information obtained by him therein as to any manufacturing process or trade secret, he shall, unless the disclosure is made in the course of performing his duty in connection with the purpose for which he was authorised to enter the premises, be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months.

(6) If any land is damaged in the exercise of a power of entry conferred under this section, compensation in respect of that damage may be recovered by any person interested in the land from the local authority on whose behalf the entry was effected, or from the Minister, as the case may be.

23 Application to shipping and aircraft

(1) His Majesty may by Order in Council direct that the provisions of this Act shall apply, subject to such exceptions and modifications as may be prescribed by the Order, in relation to vessels or aircraft as they apply in relation to land :

Provided that Part I of this Act shall not be applied by any such Order in Council in relation to vessels employed in trading or going between a place in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man and a place not within the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.

(2) Any Order in Council made under this section may be varied or revoked by a subsequent Order in Council.

24 Expenses of Common Council

Subsections (3) and (5) of section two hundred and eighty-seven of the Public Health (London) Act, 1936 (which relate to the expenses of the Common Council and the port health authority of the port of London under that Act) shall apply to expenses incurred under this Act as they apply to expenses incurred under that Act.

25 Compensation of officers

(1) The Minister shall by regulations provide for the payment of compensation, subject to such exceptions or conditions as may be specified in the regulations—

(a) by the councils of counties, to persons who, immediately before the commencement of this Act, were employed by such councils for the purposes of their functions under the Rats and Mice (Destruction) Act, 1919, or would have been so employed but for any war service in which they were engaged, and who suffer loss of employment or loss or diminution of emoluments which is attributable to the passing of this Act;

(b) by any local authority in whose case an order is made under subsection (2) of section twelve of this Act, to persons who immediately before that order came into force were employed by that authority for the purposes of their functions under Part I of this Act, or would have been so employed but for any war service in which they were engaged, and who suffer loss of employment or loss or diminution of emoluments which is attributable to the order or anything done thereunder.

(2) Any such regulations may include provision as to the manner in which and the persons to whom any claim for compensation under this section is to be made, and for the determination of all questions arising under the regulations.

(3) In this section, the expression " war service " means service in any of His Majesty's forces and such other employment as may be prescribed by regulations made under this section.

26 Legal proceedings

(1) Proceedings for an offence under this Act shall not, in England and Wales, be instituted except by or with the consent of the Minister or the local authority.

(2) Where an offence under this Act is committed by a body corporate, every person who, at the time of the commission of the offence, was a director, general manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or was purporting to act in any such capacity, shall be deemed to be guilty of that offence unless he proves that it was committed without his consent or connivance and that he exercised any such diligence to prevent its commission as he ought to have exercised having regard to the nature of his functions in that capacity and to all the circumstances.

(3) For the purposes of the last foregoing subsection, the expression " director ", in relation to any body corporate established by or under any enactment for the purpose of carrying on under national ownership any industry or part of an industry or undertaking, being a body corporate whose affairs are managed by the members thereof, means a member of that body.

27 Financial provisions

(1) There shall be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament—

(a) any expenses of the Minister under this Act;

(b) any increase in the Exchequer Equalisation Grant payable under Part I or Part II of the Local Government Act, 1948, attributable to any expenditure of a local authority under this Act;

(c) any expenses of the Minister in carrying out research in matters connected with the functions of the Minister and of local authorities under this Act.

(2) Any receipts of the Minister under this Act shall be paid into the Exchequer.

28 Interpretation

(1) In this Act, except where the context otherwise requires, the following expressions have the meanings hereby respectively assigned to them, that is to say :—

• " agricultural land " has the same meaning as in the Agriculture Act, 1947, or, in Scotland, the Agriculture (Scotland) Act, 1948 ;

• " container " includes sacks, boxes, this and other similar articles;

• " defendant ", in relation to Scotland, means defender;

• " food " includes any substance ordinarily used in the composition or preparation of food, the seeds of any cereal or vegetable, and any feeding stuffs for animals, but does not include growing crops ;

• " infestation " means the presence of rats, mice, insects or mites in numbers or under conditions which involve an immediate or potential risk of substantial loss of or damage to food, and "infested" shall be construed accordingly;,

• " land " includes land covered with water, and any building or part of a building;

• " manufacture " includes processing;

• " the Minister " means the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, or, in relation to Scotland, the Secretary of State;

• " owner " has the same meaning as in the Public Health Act, 1936, or, in Scotland, the Public Health (Scotland) Act, 1897.

(2) For the purposes of Part I of this Act, any land which is vested in or under the control of a local authority (whether or not being the local authority for the purposes of that Part) and is not occupied by any other person shall be deemed to be occupied by that authority.

29 Application to Northern Ireland

(1) Section twenty-three of this Act shall extend to Northern Ireland, and for that purpose shall have effect as if the reference therein to the provisions of this Act included a reference to any corresponding provisions for the time being in force in Northern Ireland.

(2) No limitation or restriction imposed on the power of the parliament of Northern Ireland to make laws-shall extend to prevent that parliament from enacting a provision the purposes whereof are similar to the purposes of any provision of this Act other than the said section twenty-three.

(3) Subject to the foregoing provisions of this section, this Act shall not extend to Northern Ireland.

30 Short title, repeal and commencement

(1) This Act may be cited as the Prevention of Damage by Pests Act, 1949.

(2) The Rats and Mice (Destruction) Act, 1919, is hereby repealed.

(3) This Act shall come into force on the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and fifty.

Table of Statutes referred to in this Act

Short Title	Session and Chapter
Public Health (Scotland) Act, 1897	60 & 61 Vict. c. 38.
Rats and Mice Destruction Act, 1919	9 & 10 Geo. 5. c. 72.
Housing (Scotland) Act, 1930	20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 40.
Local Government Act, 1933	23 & 24 Geo. 5. c. 51.
Public Health Act, 1936	26 Geo. 5 & 1 Edw. 8. c. 49.
Public Health (London) Act, 1936	26 Geo. 5. & 1 Edw. 8. c. 50.
Public Health (Scotland) Act 1945	9 & 10 Geo. 6. c. 15.
Water (Scotland) Act, 1946	9 & 10 Geo. 6. c. 42.
Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1947	10 & 11 Geo. 6. c. 43.
Agriculture Act, 1947	10 & 11 Geo. 6. c. 48.
Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act, 1947	10 & 11 Geo. 6. c. 53.
Local Government Act, 1948	11 & 12 Geo. 6. c. 26.
Agriculture (Scotland) Act, 1948	11 & 12 Geo. 6. c. 45.