Hearing Aid Council Act 1968
Hearing Aid CouncilAct 1968
1968 CHAPTER 50
An Act to provide for the establishment of a Hearing Aid Council, to register persons engaged in the supply of hearing aids, to advise on the training of persons engaged in such business, and to regulate trade practices; and for purposes connected therewith.
[26th July 1968]
Be it enacted by the Queen'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 Hearing Aid Council.
(1) For the purposes of this Act there shall be established a body called the Hearing Aid Council (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Council’) which shall be a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal, and shall have the general function of securing adequate standards of competence and conduct among persons engaged in dispensing hearing aids, together with the specific functions assigned to it by or under the following provisions of this Act.
(2) In furtherance of its general function the Council shall study the facilities available for training persons to act as dispensers of hearing aids, and shall keep these facilities under review, and shall advise on methods for improving these facilities and shall publicise details of training and courses available.
(3) The Council shall draw up standards of competence for dispensers of hearing aids and codes of trade practice for adoption by such dispensers and by persons employing such dispensers and shall from time to time review those standards and codes and may vary them as it considers appropriate.
(4) The Council shall submit to the Board of Trade, for their written approval, any standard or code drawn up under this section or any variation of any such standard or code which the Board may have previously approved; and the Board in approving any standard or code may make their approval conditional upon its being modified in such manner as they may require and in approving any variation may make their approval conditional upon the modifying of that variation or the further varying of the relevant standard or code in such manner as they may require:
Provided that the Board shall notify the Council of any modification or further variation which they propose to require as a condition of their approval and consider the observations of the Council thereon.
(5) The Council shall publish in such a manner as it considers appropriate but with such modifications or further variations, if any, as the Board of Trade may have required as a condition of their approval, any code or standard drawn up under this section and approved by the Board of Trade and any variation of any such standard or code which has been so approved.
(6) The Council may receive complaints from members of the public and may investigate such complaints.
(7) The provisions of the Schedule to this Act shall have effect for determining the constitution and powers of the Council and for regulating its proceedings.
2 Registers of persons selling hearing aids.
(1) The registrar appointed by the Council in accordance with the provisions of the Schedule to this Act shall establish and maintain—
(a ) a register of dispensers of hearing aids, and
(b ) a register of persons employing such dispensers.
(2) The registrar shall cause to be entered in the appropriate register the name and prescribed particulars of every person who, being qualified for registration, has applied in the prescribed manner for registration and paid the appropriate fee.
(3) The register shall be kept at the offices of the Council and shall be made available for public inspection at all reasonable times without charge.
(4) Any individual other than a disqualified person shall be qualified to be registered under this section as a dispenser of hearing aids if—
(a ) during the period of two years immediately preceding the commencement of this Act he has acted as a dispenser of such aids for a period of, or periods totalling, at least six months; or
(b ) he satisfies the standards of competence for the time being published by the Council pursuant to section 1 of this Act.
(5) Subject to subsection (6) of this section, any person other than—
(a ) a disqualified person or a person carrying on business in partnership with a disqualified person; or
(b ) a body corporate which has among its directors one or more disqualified persons or in which a disqualified person has a controlling interest or in the management of which a disqualified person participates,
shall be qualified to be registered under this section as an employer of dispensers of hearing aids if he employs or proposes to employ any person to dispense such aids.
(6) Where an application for registration under this section is refused or the registrar fails to enter the name of the applicant on the appropriate register, the applicant may appeal to the Disciplinary Committee established under section 6 of this Act and the Committee shall have power to direct that the applicant be registered and may, in the case of an application by a body corporate for registration pursuant to subsection (1)(b ) of this section, direct that subsection (5)(b ) of this section, shall not apply.
(7) In this section ‘appropriate fee’ means in the case of an application for registration as a dispenser a fee of 10 or such other amount as may be prescribed and in the case of an application for registration as an employer of such dispensers a fee of 1 or such other amount as may be prescribed; and ‘disqualified person’ means a person whose name has been directed under section 7 of this Act to be removed from either of the registers maintained under this section and in respect of which no directions for restoration have been given under section 8.
3 Offences by unregistered persons.
(1) It shall be unlawful at any time more than six months after the commencement of this Act for—
(a ) any person other than—
(i) a person registered under this Act as a dispenser of hearing aids; or
(ii) a person whose name has been notified to the registrar of the Council and who is undergoing full-time training with a view to being registered as a dispenser of hearing aids and acting under the supervision of a registered dispenser,
to act as a dispenser of hearing aids;
(b ) any person whose name is not for the time being entered in the register maintained pursuant to section 2(1)(b ) of this Act to employ any person to act as a dispenser of hearing aids; or
(c ) any person whose name is entered in the register which is so maintained to employ a person other than—
(i) a person registered under this Act as a dispenser of hearing aids; or
(ii) a person whose name has been notified to the registrar of the Council and who is undergoing full-time training with a view to being registered as a dispenser of hearing aids and acting under the supervision of a registered dispenser,
to act as a dispenser of such aids.
(2) A person who contravenes subsection (1) of this section shall be guilty of an offence and shall be punishable upon summary conviction by a fine not exceeding 100.
4 Form and keeping of registers required by s. 2.
4. The Council may make rules with respect to the form and keeping of the registers to be maintained in accordance with section 2 of this Act and with respect to the making of entries, alterations and corrections therein and with respect to the issue by the registrar of certificates of registration and such rules may in particular—
(i) to supply information required by the registrar with a view to ensuring that the particulars entered against his name are correct, or
(ii) to supply information required to show that he is not in any contravention of any provision of this Act, or
(iii) to pay the annual fee in respect of the retention of his name on the register;
Provided that the Council shall not—
(i) make any rule under this section unless the terms of that rule have been approved in writing by the Board of Trade; or
5 Preliminary investigation of disciplinary cases.
(1) The Council shall set up a committee from among its members to be known as the Investigating Committee, for the...
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