Slaughterhouses Act 1954
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1954 c. 42 |
| Year | 1954 |
Slaughterhouses Act , 1954
(2 & 3 Eliz. 2) CHAPTER 42
An Act to make local authorities responsible for the time being for securing that adequate slaughterhouse facilities are available locally; to explain and amend the law with respect to the provision by local authorities of public slaughterhouses, the making of charges in respect of such slaughterhouses and the grant and renewal of licences under section fifty-seven of the Food and Drugs Act, 1938; to make further provision with respect to the regulation and restriction of private slaughterhouses and the payment of compensation where a licence or registration in respect of such a slaughterhouse is refused or ceases to be in force; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
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:—
Part I
Provisions relating to England and Wales
1 Functions of local authorities.
(1) It shall be the duty of every local authority, if and so far as it appears to them that additional slaughterhouse facilities are required in their district having regard to the reasonable requirements of persons making use of such facilities, to make such use of their powers under any enactment or statutory order as they think expedient for securing the provision of the facilities required.
(2) It is hereby declared that the power of a local authority under subsection (1) of section sixty of the Food and Drugs Act, 1938, to provide public slaughterhouses is exercisable in either of the following ways, that is to say—
(a ) by acquiring (whether by purchase, lease or otherwise) or appropriating land and providing slaughterhouse facilities there; or
(b ) by acquiring (whether by purchase, lease or otherwise) land on which such facilities have been provided by other persons and securing that such facilities continue to be provided there;
and that, without prejudice to the effect of section ninety-six of the said Act (which incorporates in the Act certain ancillary provisions of the Public Health Act, 1936), the purposes for which a local authority may be authorised by the Minister of Housing and Local Government to purchase and compulsorily include the purposes of the said section sixty; and any reference in Part V of the said Act of 1938 to a local authority providing a slaughterhouse shall be construed accordingly.
(3) Where a local authority have (whether before or after the commencement of this Act) provided a public slaughterhouse in the exercise of the said power, or of any other power conferred by a local Act or statutory order, they may make such arrangements as they think expedient for securing that all the activities of the slaughterhouse, or any particular activities, are carried on there by servants or agents of theirs to the exclusion of other persons:
Provided that a local authority shall not exercise the powers conferred by this subsection in such a manner as to deny to any religious community reasonable facilities for obtaining as food the flesh of animals slaughtered by the method specially required by their religion.
2 Charges in respect of public slaughter-houses.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, a local authority who have provided a public slaughterhouse may make charges, according to scales determined by them from time to time, in respect of the use of the slaughterhouse or of any services provided there.
(2) Every scale of charges determined by a local authority for the purposes of this section shall be published by them in at least one newspaper circulating in their district and in such other manner (if any) as they think expedient for informing persons interested; and a copy of every scale of charges so published shall be sent by the authority to the Minister of Food.
(3) If it appears to the Minister of Food that a scale of charges determined by a local authority for the purposes of this section is in any respect unreasonable, he may, after consultation with the authority, direct them—
(a ) to make such alterations in the scale as he considers appropriate, and
(b ) except with his approval, not to depart from the scale as altered for such period as he may specify;
and the authority shall comply with the direction.
(4) The following enactments shall cease to have effect, that is to say:—
(a ) paragraph (b ) of subsection (2) of section sixty of the Food and Drugs Act, 1938 (which enables local authorities with the approval of the Minister of Housing and Local Government to make charges in respect of a public slaughterhouse provided by them); and
(b ) so much of any local Act or statutory order as authorises a local authority to make charges in respect of a public slaughterhouse or to make byelaws for that purpose.
3 Grant and renewal of licences.
(1) Where, after the commencement of this Act and before the first day of July, nineteen hundred and fifty-six, a slaughterhouse licence is granted or renewed by a local authority, the period fixed by the authority for the licence to remain in force or, as the case may be, the period for which it is renewed may, notwithstanding anything in subsection (7) of section fifty-seven of the Food and Drugs Act, 1938 (which relates to the duration of licences under that section in respect of slaughterhouses and knackers' yards), exceed thirteen months so long as it does not end later than the thirty-first day of July, nineteen hundred and fifty-nine:
Provided that this subsection shall not apply in any case where it appears to the local authority that the premises in respect of which the licence is granted or renewed are, so far as they are to be used for slaughter, to be used wholly or mainly for the slaughter of horses.
(2) Notwithstanding anything in the said section fifty-seven, no slaughterhouse licence shall, except with the consent of the Minister of Food, be granted or renewed by a local authority after the commencement of this Act unless the premises in respect of which the application for the grant or renewal is made—
(a ) have since the commencement of the said Act of 1938 been used as a slaughterhouse under the authority of a licence granted under the said section fifty-seven; or
(b ) were at any time during the period of five years immediately preceding the said commencement in use as a slaughterhouse and registered or licensed as such under any enactment repealed by that Act.
(3) Without prejudice to any other discretion of theirs in relation to the grant or renewal of licences under the said section fifty-seven, or to any right of appeal conferred by subsection (6) of that section, a local authority may refuse an application made to them for the grant or renewal of a slaughterhouse licence in respect of any premises if they are not satisfied that the requirements of section thirteen of the said Act of 1938 (which contains provisions relating to hygiene and cleanliness in places where food is prepared for sale, &c.), or of any regulations made under paragraph (a ) of subsection (1) of section eight of that Act (which relates to measures against danger to health resulting from the preparation and distribution of food), are complied with in respect of those premises, or will be complied with before the date on which the licence or renewed licence comes into force.
(4) In the said section fifty-seven—
(a ) paragraph (b ) of the proviso to subsection (2) and subsection (3) (under which a licence under that section authorising a person to keep premises as a slaughterhouse or knacker's yard must be granted as of right where the premises were previously registered or licensed under an enactment replaced by that section, except where they are unsuitable, or the applicant is not a proper person) shall cease to have effect; and
(b ) in paragraph (a ) of the said proviso (which requires premises to be inspected where the application is for the grant of a fresh licence but not when it is for the renewal of an existing licence) for the words ‘grant a licence, otherwise than by way of renewal of an existing licence’ there shall be substituted the words ‘grant or renew a licence’.
(5) The provisions contained in the First Schedule to this Act (being provisions which, in relation to slaughterhouses, reproduce in a modified form and with temporary effect the enactments mentioned in paragraph (a ) of the last foregoing subsection) shall have effect with respect to slaughterhouses to which those enactments apply.
(6) Where a person was immediately before the commencement of this Act authorised to keep any premises as a slaughterhouse by virtue only of a notice served on him under subsection (3) of the said section fifty-seven (which makes a local authority's notice to carry out works equivalent to a temporary licence), that person shall for all purposes of the Food and Drugs Act, 1938, and this Part of this Act be deemed to be the holder of a slaughterhouse licence in respect of those premises limited to expire at the end of six weeks beginning with the dale of the commencement of this Act.
4 Restriction of private slaughter-houses.
(1) The power of a local authority under subsection (2) of section sixty-one of the Food and Drugs Act, 1938 (which authorises the closure of private slaughterhouses and restrictions on the establishment of private slaughterhouses in a district where the local authority have provided a public slaughterhouse), to make such a determination as is mentioned in that subsection shall be exercisable notwithstanding that the authority have not provided a public slaughterhouse, if the authority are...
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