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54
(APPENDIX.)
SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT ON THE USE OF WARRANTIES
IN PROSECUTIONS UNDER THE SALE OF FOOD
AND DRUGS ACTS.
Public Health Department,
Town Hall Hackney, E.8.
12th October, 1918.
To the Chairman and Members
of the Public Health Committee.
Gentlemen,
I beg herewith to present to the Committee as Supplement to
my Report of the 25th May, 1915, further particulars as to the effect
of the use of waranties as a defence on the administration of the
Sale of Food and Drugs Acts. In the report referred to, I submitted
the following propositions, viz.:—
(1) The warranty defence is seriously and adversely
affecting the administration of the Sale of Food and Drugs
Acts.
(2) It is encouraging the operations of an unscrupulous
class of trader.
(3) It is causing increased cost and great waste of time
and energy on the part of public officers without any adequate
return, with a corresponding loss of protection to the public
against fraud. The facts referred to in my former report were
drawn from the years 1910-14 inclusive. Since that period,
further experience as to the baneful effects of the warranty
defence has accumulated, from which it appears that it is
slowly but surely paralysing the efforts of Local Authorities
to administer the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts. This later