Vaccination Act 1898
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1898 c. 49 |
| Year | 1898 |
Vaccination Act, 1898
(61 & 62 Vict.) CHAPTER 49.
An Act to Amend the Law with respect to Vaccination.
[12th August 1898]
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 Vaccination within six months after birth.
(1)1.—(1.) The period within which the parent or other person having the custody of a child shall cause the child to be vaccinated shall be six months from the birth of the child, instead of the period of three months mentioned in section sixteen of the Vaccination Act of 1867 , and so much of that section as requires the child to be taken to a public vaccinator to be vaccinated shall be repealed.
(2) (2.) The public vaccinator of the district shall, if the parent or other person having the custody of a child so requires, visit the home of the child for the purpose of vaccinating the child.
(3) (3.) If a child is not vaccinated within four months after its birth, the public vaccinator of the district, after at least twenty-four hours notice to the parent, shall visit the home of the child, and shall offer to vaccinate the child with glycerinated calf lymph, or such other lymph as may be issued by the Local Government Board.
(4) (4.) The public vaccinator shall not vaccinate a child, if, in his opinion, the condition of the house in which it resides is such, or there is or has been such a recent prevalence of infectious disease in the district, that it cannot be safely vaccinated, and in that case shall give a certificate under section eighteen of the Vaccination Act of 1867 of postponement of vaccination, and shall forthwith give notice of any such certificate to the medical officer of health for the district.
(5) (5.) Notwithstanding any regulation of any lying-in hospital or infirmary, or other similar institution, the parent of any child born in any institution shall not be compelled under such regulation or otherwise to cause or permit the child to be vaccinated at any time earlier than the expiration of six months from its birth.
2 Exemption from penalties.
(1)2.—(1.) No parent or other person shall be liable to any penalty under section twenty-nine or section thirty-one of the Vaccination Act of 1867, if within four months from the birth of the child he satisfies two justices, or a stipendiary or metropolitan police magistrate, in petty sessions, that he conscientiously believes that vaccination would be prejudicial to the health of the child, and within seven days thereafter delivers to the vaccination officer for the district a certificate by such justices or magistrate of such conscientious objection.
(2) (2.) This section shall come into operation on the passing of this Act, but in its application to a child born before the passing of this Act there shall be substituted for the period of four months from the birth of the...
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