Poisons Rules 1978

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved

1978 No. 1

POISONS

The Poisons Rules 1978

1stJanuary 1978

11thJanuary 1978

ARRANGEMENT OF RULES

1. Citation and commencement.

2. Interpretation.

Application and Relaxation of the Act

3. Restriction of sales by shopkeepers.

4. Extension of labelling provisions and relaxation with respect to poisons in Schedule 2 and consignments to Northern Ireland.

5. Application of section 3(2) of the Act.

6. Extension of section 3(2) to sales wholesale, etc., and relaxation of the said subsection.

7. Exemption from the provisions applying solely to Schedule 1.

8. Complete exemption for articles and substances in Schedule 3.

Additional Restrictions on the Sale of Poisons

9. Additional restriction of sales by persons lawfully conducting a retail pharmacy business.

10. Restriction of sales by listed sellers of Part II poisons.

11. Requirement as to colouring in certain cases.

12. Restriction of sales of Part I poisons to shopkeepers.

13. Restriction of sale and supply of strychnine and certain other poisons.

14. Restriction of sale and supply of cyanides.

Supplementary Provisions with respect to Labelling and Containers

15. Manner of labelling containers.

16. Labelling of name of poison.

17. Labelling of particulars as to proportion of the poison.

18. Indication of character of the poison.

19. Special precautions in the case of certain articles.

20. Name of seller and address of premises.

21. Form of containers.

Storage and Transport

22. Storage of poisons.

23. Transport of poisons.

24. Special provisions with respect to the transport of poisons specified in Schedule 7.

Miscellaneous

25. Form of application to a local authority, fees to be paid by listed sellers of Part II poisons and form of local authority's list.

26. Certificates of persons to whom poisons may be sold.

27. Form of record of sales.

28. Preservation of records.

29. Revocations.

SCHEDULES

SCHEDULE 1: Poisons included in the Poisons List to which special restrictions apply unless exempted by Rule 7.

SCHEDULE 2: Poisons exempted from labelling provisions when sold or supplied in certain circumstances.

SCHEDULE 3: Articles exempted from the provisions of the Act and of these Rules.

SCHEDULE 4: Part A—Form to which the poisons specified are restricted when sold by listed sellers of Part II poisons.

Part B—Poisons which may be sold by listed sellers of Part II poisons only to persons engaged in the trade or business of agriculture, horticulture or forestry for the purpose of that trade or business.

SCHEDULE 5: Statement of particulars permitted in certain cases as to proportion of poison.

SCHEDULE 6: Indication of character of article prescribed for the purposes of section 3(1)(c)(iii) of the Act.

SCHEDULE 7: Poisons required to be specially labelled for transport.

SCHEDULE 8: Form of application for entry in the list kept by a local authority under section 5 of the Act.

SCHEDULE 9: Form of the list to be kept by a local authority in pursuance of section 5(1) of the Act.

SCHEDULE 10: Certificate for the purchase of a non-medicinal poison.

SCHEDULE 11: Form of entry to be made in the book to be kept by sellers of poisons in accordance with section 3(2)(b) of the Act.

SCHEDULE 12: Restriction of sale and supply of strychnine and certain other poisons.

SCHEDULE 13: Substances in which the poisons specified are exempted by Rule 5 from section 3(2) of the Act.

SCHEDULE 14: Poisons required to be coloured in certain cases.

SCHEDULE 15: Instruments revoked.

In pursuance of section 7 of the Poisons Act 1972(a) and on the recommendation of the Poisons Board I hereby make the following Rules:—

Citation and commencement

1. These Rules may be cited as the Poisons Rules 1978 and shall come into operation immediately after the coming into operation of the Poisons Act 1972.

(a) 1972 c. 66.

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Rules, unless the context otherwise requires—

"the Act" means the Poisons Act 1972;

"food" includes a beverage;

"listed seller of Part II poisons" means a person whose name is for the time being entered in a local authority's list;

"medicated animal feeding stuff" means an animal feeding stuff in which a medicinal product has been incorporated or in which a substance other than a medicinal product has been incorporated for a medicinal purpose;

"poison" means a non-medicinal poison;

"sale exempted by section 4 of the Act" means a sale within any of paragraphs (a) to (e) of section 4 of the Act.

(2) In paragraph (1) "animal" has the meaning assigned to it by section 132 of the Medicines Act 1968(a) and "medicinal product" and "medicinal purpose" have the meanings respectively assigned to them by section 130 of that Act.

(3) These Rules shall not have effect in relation to any poison other than a non-medicinal poison.

(4) In these Rules any reference to a Rule or Schedule shall be construed as a reference to a Rule contained in these Rules, or, as the case may be, to a Schedule thereto; and any reference in a Rule to a paragraph shall be construed as a reference to a paragraph of that Rule.

(5) Any reference in the Schedules to the percentage of poison contained in any substance or preparation shall, unless otherwise expressly provided, be construed in the following manner, that is to say, a reference to a substance or preparation containing one per cent. of any poison means—

(a) in the case of a solid, that one gram of the poison is contained in every hundred grams of the substance or preparation;

(b) in the case of a liquid, that one millilitre of the poison, or, if the poison itself is a solid, one gram of the poison, is contained in every hundred millilitres of the substance or preparation;

and so in proportion for any greater or lesser percentage.

(6) References in these Rules to the provisions of any enactment shall be construed as references to those provisions as amended, re-enacted or modified by or under any subsequent enactment.

(7) The Interpretation Act 1889(b) shall apply to the interpretation of these Rules as it applies to the interpretation of an Act of Parliament, and as if these Rules and the Rules revoked by these Rules were Acts of Parliament.

APPLICATION AND RELAXATION OF THE ACT

Restriction of sales by shopkeepers

3. It shall not be lawful for any shopkeeper to sell poisons on any premises used for or in connection with his retail business, notwithstanding that the sale is exempted by section 4 of the Act, unless he complies with the provisions of paragraph (a) or paragraph (b), as the case may be, of section 3(1) of the Act.

(a) 1968 c. 67

(b) 1889 c. 63.

Extension of labelling provisions and relaxation with respect to poisons in Schedule 2 and consignments to Northern Ireland

4.—(1) Subject as hereinafter provided, the provisions of section 3(1)(c) of the Act and of Rules 15 to 20 (which provisions relate to the labelling of poisons) shall apply to sales exempted by section 4 of the Act, other than sales of poisons to be exported to purchasers outside the United Kingdom; and shall also apply to the supply of poisons (otherwise than on sale) in like manner as if references in the said provisions to the sale and the seller of poisons included references to the supply and the supplier of poisons respectively.

(2) The said provisions, except the provisions of Rule 19 and of section 3(1)(c)(iv) of the Act as modified by Rule 20, shall not apply to the sale or supply of any of the poisons included in Schedule 2 to a person who—

(a) carries on a business in the course of which poisons are regularly sold by way of wholesale dealing or are regularly used in the manufacture of other articles, and

(b) requires the poison for the purpose of that business,

if the outside of the package in which the poison is sold or supplied is labelled conspicuously with words indicating the dangerous properties of the poison.

(3) The said provisions shall not apply to the sale or supply of poisons to be consigned to purchasers in Northern Ireland if the poisons are labelled in accordance with the corresponding provisions of the law in force in Northern Ireland relating to the labelling of poisons.

Application of section 3(2) of the Act

5. The provisions of section 3(2) of the Act (which makes provision as to persons to whom poisons may be sold and to the keeping of records of sales) shall apply with respect to all poisons included in Schedule 1, whether or not the poison sold is a poison included in Part I of the Poisons List, and shall not apply with respect to any other poison:

Provided that—

(i) paragraph (a) of the said section 3(2) shall, in its application to sales by listed sellers of Part II poisons, be deemed to be satisfied if the person to whom the poison is sold is known by the person in charge of the premises on which the poison is sold or of the department of the business in which the sale is effected to be a person to whom the poison may properly be sold, and

(ii) the provisions of the said section 3(2) shall not apply, so far as any poison specified in the first column of Schedule 13 is concerned, to sales of substances specified in the second column of that Schedule.

Extension of section 3(2) to sales wholesale, etc., and relaxation of the said subsection

6.—(1) The provisions of section 3(2) of the Act as modified by Rule 5 shall apply to sales exempted by section 4 of the Act, other than sales of poisons to be exported to purchasers outside the United Kingdom; and shall also apply to the supply in the form of commercial sample, otherwise than on sale, of any poison included in Schedule 1 in like manner as if references in the said provisions to the sale and seller of poisons respectively included references to the supply and the supplier of poisons in the form of commercial samples:

Provided that the said provisions shall not apply to the sale or supply of any article by the manufacturer thereof or by a person carrying on a business in the course of which poisons are regularly sold by way of wholesale dealing, if—

(a) the...

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