Livestock Industry Act 1937
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1937 c. 50 |
| Year | 1937 |
Livestock Industry Act, 1937
(1 Edw. 8 & 1 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 50.
An Act to make provision for the development and better organisation of the livestock industry and industries connected therewith; for paying a subsidy to producers of fat cattle; for regulating the importation of livestock and meat, the holding of livestock markets and the slaughtering of livestock; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[20th July 1937]
B E 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:—
Part I.
Advisory Committee.The Livestock Commission and the Livestock
1 Constitution and general functions of Livestock Commission.
(1) With a view to the development and better organisation of the livestock industry in the United Kingdom, there shall be constituted a commission to be called ‘the Livestock Commission’ (hereafter in this Act referred to as ‘the Commission’), who shall have the functions—
(a ) of keeping generally under review the production, marketing and slaughtering of livestock, the preparation for sale of products of the slaughtering of livestock, and the marketing, consumption, treatment and use of such products, and
(b ) of advising and assisting the Ministers in matters relating to the livestock industry,
and such other functions as are entrusted to the Commission by or under the following provisions of this Act.
(2) The Commission shall consist of a chairman and not more than eight other members appointed by the Ministers.
(3) The Ministers may appoint a secretary to the Commission, and the Commission may appoint such other officers, and such servants, as the Ministers may, with the approval of the Treasury, determine; and the Ministers may pay to the members, officers and servants of the Commission, out of moneys provided by Parliament, such remuneration (whether by way of salaries or by way of fees), and such allowances, as the Ministers may, with the approval of the Treasury, determine.
(4) The incidental provisions contained in the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect in relation to the Commission.
2 Powers of Commission as to inquiries.
(1) The Commission may hold such inquiries as they consider necessary or desirable for the discharge of any of their functions; and if the Ministers are satisfied that, for the purposes of any inquiry on the part of the Commission into a particular matter, it is necessary so to do, the Ministers may by order, specifying the matter to be inquired into, direct that in respect of any meeting of the Commission held for the purpose of inquiring into that matter, being a meeting at which not less than three members of the Commission are present, the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act, 1921 , shall apply to the Commission as if they were a tribunal established in accordance with that Act and as if that Act had been applied to the Commission in the manner thereby prescribed:
Provided that the said Act shall, in its application to the Commission, have effect as if for paragraph (a ) of section two of the Act there were substituted the following paragraph:—
‘(a ) may refuse to allow the public or any portion of the public to be present at the proceedings of the Commission, if and so far as it is, in the opinion of the Commission, necessary so to do for reasons connected with the subject-matter of the inquiry or the nature of the evidence to be given;’.
(2) Any order under this section shall, as soon as may be after it is made, be laid before Parliament, and if either House of Parliament, within the next thirty days on which that House has sat after the order is laid before it, resolves that the order be annulled, it shall thereupon become void, without prejudice, however, to anything previously done thereunder or to the making of a new order.
3 Livestock Advisory Committee.
(1) For the purpose of giving advice and assistance to the Commission in the discharge of their functions, there shall be constituted a committee, which shall be called, and is hereafter in this Act referred to as, the ‘Livestock Advisory Committee.’
(2) The members of the Livestock Advisory Committee shall be persons appointed by the Ministers, and shall consist of representative members and four additional members.
The representative members of the Committee shall be persons appointed as representing respectively the interests of—
(a ) persons carrying on in the United Kingdom the business of keeping livestock,
(b ) local authorities in Great Britain,
(c ) persons carrying on in Great Britain the business of effecting sales of livestock by auction,
and such other interests concerned in the marketing, or preparation for sale, of livestock or products of the slaughtering of livestock as appear to the Ministers to be immediately affected, or likely to be immediately affected, by the operation of this Act; and the additional members of the Committee shall be appointed as being independent persons.
(3) Before appointing a person to be a representative member of the Livestock Advisory Committee, the Ministers shall consult such bodies, if any, as appear to the Ministers to be representative of the interest concerned.
(4) There shall be constituted three sub-committees of the Livestock Advisory Committee, one for England, one for Scotland and one for Wales (which sub-committees are hereafter in this Act respectively referred to as ‘the English sub-committee,’‘the Scottish sub-committee’ and ‘the Welsh sub-committee’), and each of the said sub-committees shall, subject as hereinafter provided, consist of such members of the Committee as may be designated by the appropriate Minister:
Provided that, in relation to any of the said sub-committees, the appropriate Minister may appoint to be members of the sub-committee persons who are not members of the Committee, but who appear to the said Minister to be representative of one or more of the interests referred to in subsection (2) of this section; but not less than two-thirds of the members of the sub-committee shall be members of the Committee.
(5) Any matter falling to be considered by the Livestock Advisory Committee shall, if it is a matter arising in relation to England only, in relation to Scotland only or in relation to Wales only, stand referred to the English sub-committee, the Scottish sub-committee or the Welsh sub-committee, as the case may be, which shall consider the matter and report thereon to the Committee.
(6) For the purposes of the last two preceding subsections, Wales shall, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the Wales and Berwick Act, 1746 , be deemed not to be included in England, and Monmouthshire shall be deemed to be included in Wales.
(7) Such expenses of the Livestock Advisory Committee and of the said sub-committees as the Ministers may approve shall be defrayed by the Commission, and shall be deemed to be expenses of the Commission.
(8) The incidental provisions contained in the Second Schedule to this Act shall have effect in relation to the Livestock Advisory Committee.
Part II.
The Cattle Subsidy.
4 Subsidy to producers of fat cattle.
(1) Subject to the provisions of any orders and regulations under this Part of this Act, the Ministers may make, in accordance with a scheme made by the Commission and approved by an order of the Ministers for the time being in force, payments to producers of fat cattle in respect of—
(a ) steers, heifers or cow-heifers sold or slaughtered in the United Kingdom on or after the appointed day by or on behalf of such producers, or
(b ) the carcases of steers, heifers or cow-heifers sold or slaughtered as aforesaid,
being animals, or, as the case may be, the carcases of animals, which have been certified in accordance with the scheme to be of any of the descriptions for the time being defined by regulations under this Part of this Act.
Payments under this section are hereafter in this Act referred to as ‘subsidy payments,’ and any scheme made for the purposes of this section is hereafter in this Part of this Act referred to as ‘a subsidy scheme.’
(2) Every subsidy payment in respect of an animal or carcase shall be computed in such manner as may be prescribed in relation to animals or carcases, as the case may be, by an order made by the Ministers, after consultation with the Commission, and approved by the Treasury; and an order under this subsection may make different provision in relation to different descriptions of animals or their carcases.
5 Subsidy schemes.
(1) It shall be the duty of the Commission to make and submit a subsidy scheme to the Ministers and, if the Ministers by order approve the scheme, to carry it into effect.
(2) A subsidy scheme may provide for the issue (subject to the provisions of any regulations under this Part of this Act) of such certificates as are required for the purposes of this Part of this Act, and for determining the places at which, and the persons by whom, animals may be certified for the said purposes, and generally for securing that subsidy payments are properly made, and may authorise the persons having the function of issuing such certificates to charge, in respect of the examination of animals presented for certification and in respect of the certification of animals, such reasonable fees as may be determined by or under the scheme.
(3) The Ministers may, before approving any subsidy scheme submitted to them by the Commission, make such modifications in the scheme as the...
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