Venereal Disease Act, 1917

VENEREAL DISEASE ACT 1917

CHAPTER XXI.

An Act to prevent the treatment of Venereal Disease otherwise than by duly qualified medical Practitioners, and to control the supply of Remedies therefor; and for other matters connected therewith. [24th May 1917.]

Be 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:

Prevention of the treatment of venereal disease otherwise than by duly qualified persons.

1.(1) In any area in which this section is in operation, a person shall not, unless he is a duly qualified medical practitioner, for reward either direct or indirect, treat any person for venereal disease or prescribe any remedy therefor, or give any advice in connection with the treatment thereof, whether the advice is given to the person to be treated or to any other person.

(2) This section shall operate in any area to which it is applied by order of the Local Government Board, or, in Scotland and Ireland, the Local Government Board for Scotland and Ireland respectively:

Provided that no order shall be made in respect of any area until a scheme for the gratuitous treatment of persons in that area suffering from venereal disease has been approved by the Local Government Board, or, in Scotland and Ireland, the Local Government Board for Scotland and Ireland respectively, and is already in operation.

Restriction on advertisements, &c.

2.(1) A person shall not by any advertisement or any public notice or announcement treat or offer to treat any person for venereal disease, or prescribe or offer to prescribe any remedy therefor, or offer to give or give any advice in connection with the treatment thereof.

(2) On and after the first day of November nineteen hundred and seventeen a person shall not hold out or recommend to the public by any notice or advertisement, or by any written or printed papers or handbills, or by any label or words written or printed, affixed to or delivered with, any packet, box, bottle, phial, or other inclosure containing the same, any pills, capsules, powders, lozenges, tinctures, potions, cordials, electuaries, plaisters, unguents, salves, ointments, drops, lotions, oils, spirits, medicated herbs and waters, chemical and officinal preparations whatsoever, to be used or applied externally or internally as medicines or medicaments for the prevention, cure, or relief of any venereal disease:

Provided that nothing in this section shall apply to any advertisement, notification, announcement, recommendation, or holding out made or published by any local or public authority or made or published with the sanction of the Local Government Board, or in Scotland and Ireland the Local Government Board for Scotland and Ireland respectively, or to any publication sent only to duly qualified medical practitioners or to wholesale or retail chemists for the purposes of their business.

Penalties.

3. If any person acts in contravention of any of the provisions of this Act, he shall be liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for a term not exceeding two years, or on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds, or to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for a term not exceeding six months.

Definition.

4. In this Act the expression “venereal disease” means syphilis, gonorrhœa, or soft chancre.

Short title.

5. This Act may be cited as the Venereal Disease Act, 1917.