Milk and Dairies (Consolidation) Act 1915
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1915 c. 66 |
Milk and Dairies (Consolidation) Act, 1915
(5 & 6 Geo. 5.) 66.
An Act to consolidate certain Enactments relating to Milk and Dairies.
[29th July 1915]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
1 Milk and Dairies, Orders.
(1) The Local Government bard may make such general or special orders (hereinafter referred to as Milk and Dairies Orders) as they think fit for all or any of the following purposes:—
(a ) for the registration with local authorities of all persons carrying on the trade of dairymen;
(b ) for the registration with local authorities of all dairies;
(c ) for the inspection of cattle in dairies;
(d ) for the inspection by persons authorised by the local authority for the locality in which the dairy is situate of dairies and persons in or about dairies who have access to the milk or to the churns or other milk receptacles;
(e ) for prescribing and regulating the lighting, ventilation, cleansing, drainage, and water supply of dairies in the occupation of persons following the trade of dairymen;
(f ) for securing the cleanliness of milk stores, milk shops, and milk vessels used for containing milk for sale by such persons;
(g ) for prescribing the precautions to be taken for protecting milk against infection or contamination;
(h ) for preventing danger to health from the sale for human consumption, or from the use in the manufacture of products for human consumption, of infected, contaminated, or dirty milk;
(i ) for regulating the cooling, conveyance, and distribution of milk intended for sale for human consumption, or for use in the manufacture of products for human consumption;
(j ) as to the labelling, marking, or identification and the sealing or closing of churns, vessels, and other receptacles of milk for sale for human consumption or used for the conveyance of such milk;
(k ) for prohibiting the addition of colouring matter; and for prohibiting or regulating the addition of skimmed or separated milk or water or any other substance to milk intended for sale for human consumption, or the abstraction therefrom of butter-fat or any other constituent; and for prohibiting or regulating the sale for human consumption of milk to which such an addition or from which such abstraction has been made, or which has been otherwise artificially treated;
(l ) for authorising the use, in connexion with the sale of milk, of the designation ‘certified milk,’ for prescribing the conditions subject to which milk may be sold under such designation, and for prohibiting the use of such designation in connexion with the sale of milk in respect of which the prescribed conditions are not complied with;
(m ) for authorising a local authority to make regulations for the purposes aforesaid, or any of them, subject to such conditions (if any) as the Local Government Board prescribe.
(2) A Milk and Dairies Order with respect to the inspection of cattle in a dairy may authorise the person making the inspection to require any cow to be milked in his presence and to take samples of the milk, and to require that the milk from any particular teat shall be kept separate and to take separate samples thereof.
(3) If any person is guilty of a contravention of, or noncompliance with, the provisions of any Milk and Dairies Order, he shall be guilty of an offence against this Act.
(4) Milk and Dairies orders shall be made by the Local Government Board with the concurrence of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, and shall have effect as if enacted in this Act.
(5) All Milk and Dairies Orders shall be laid before each House of Parliament as soon as may be after they are made; and if an Address is presented to His Majesty by either House of Parliament within the next subsequent forty days on which that House has sat next after the order is laid before it praying that the order may be annulled, it shall thenceforth be void, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder, or to the making of a new order. If the session of Parliament ends before such forty days as aforesaid have expired, the order shall be laid before each House of Parliament at the commencement of the next session as if it had not previously been laid.
(6) The Rules Publication Act, 1893 , shall apply to any such order as if it was a statutory rule within the meaning of section one of that Act.
2 Powers of enforcing Milk and Dairies Orders.
2. A local authority and their officers for the purpose of enforcing a Milk and Dairies Order and any regulations made thereunder shall have the same right to be admitted to any premises as a local authority within the meaning of the Public Health Act, 1875, and their officers have under section one hundred and two of that Act for the purpose of examining as to the existence of any nuisance thereon, and if such admission is refused, the like proceedings may be taken, with the like incidents and consequences, as to orders, payment, penalty, costs, expenses and otherwise, as in the case of a refusal to admit to premises for any of the purposes of the said section one hundred and two:
Provided that nothing in this section shall authorise any person; except with the permission of the local authority under the Diseases of Animals Acts, 1894 to 1914, to enter any cowshed or other place in which an animal affected with any disease to which those Acts apply is kept and which is situated in a place declared under those Acts to be infected with such disease.
3 Power to stop supply of milk likely to cause tuberculosis
(1) If the medical officer of health of a county or county borough is of opinion that tuberculosis is caused, or is likely to be caused, by the consumption of the milk supplied from any dairy in which cows are kept within such county or county borough, the provisions of the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect with respect to the reports to be made and the steps to be taken with a view to stopping the supply of milk from the dairy, and, with a view to stopping such supply, orders may be made in accordance with that Schedule, subject to such right of appeal and the payment of compensation in such cases as are provided therein.
(2) Where an order stopping the supply of milk is made under the said schedule a dairyman shall not be liable for an action for breach of contract if the breach is due to such order.
(3) If any dairyman, whilst any order made in accordance with the said schedule prohibiting the supply or use of milk is in force, supplies or uses any milk in contravention of this order he shall be guilty of an offence against this Act.
(4) The Local Government Board may by order direct that the council of any non-county borough within the county, which is a local authority for the purposes of the Diseases of Animals Acts, 1894 to 1914, shall exercise and perform within the borough the powers and duties of the county council under this and the next succeeding section, and where such an order has been made with respect to any non-county borough this and the next succeeding section shall apply as if the borough were a county borough.
4 Obligation to inspect dairies in certain cases.
(1) If the medical officer of health of any local authority has reason to suspect that tuberculosis is caused, or is likely to be caused, by the consumption of any milk which is being sold or exposed or kept for sale with in the area of the local authority, he shall endeavour to ascertain the source or sources of supply, and on ascertaining the facts shall forthwith give notice of them to the medical officer of health of the county or county borough in which the cows from which the milk is obtained are kept, whether the dairy where they are kept is within or without the area of the local authority, unless the local authority are themselves the council of that county or county borough.
(2) On the receipt of such notice it shall be the duty of the medical officer of health of the county or county borough to cause the cattle in the dairy to be inspected, and to make such other investigations as may be necessary.
(3) Sufficient notice of the time of the inspection shall be given to the local authority whose medical officer of health gave the notice, and to the dairyman to allow that officer or a veterinary inspector or other veterinary surgeon appointed by the authority, and, if desired, another veterinary surgeon appointed by the dairyman being present at the inspection if either party so desire.
(4) The council of the county or county borough on whose medical officer of health the notice is served shall send to the medical officer of health of the local authority who gave the notice copies of any reports which may have been made by the medical officer of health making the inspection, and of any veterinary or bacteriological or other reports which may have been furnished to him, and shall give him information as to whether any action has been taken upon those reports and as to the nature of that action.
5 Prohibition of sale of tuberculous milk.
5. If a person—
the milk of any cow which has given tuberculous milk, or is suffering from emaciation due to tuberculosis, or from tuberculosis of the udder, or from acute inflammation of the udder, or from any of the diseases specified in the...
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