Public Health (Wales) Act 2017 Explanatory Notes

Section 69 - Performance of special procedure in course of business: approval requirement

131.This section establishes that a person carrying on a business in which a special procedure is performed must comply with two requirements. The first requirement is that the procedure is performed at premises or in a vehicle that has been approved by the local authority under section 70. The second requirement ensures that once approved, there is compliance with the mandatory approval conditions (provided at section 70(3)).

132.The approval requirements will also apply in the case of an exhibition, entertainment or other event to which members of the public have access, and at which a special procedure is performed by a person in the course of business. In these circumstances, the person who organises the exhibition, entertainment or event is responsible for ensuring the premises is approved and the applicable mandatory conditions of approval are complied with. Subsection (7) clarifies that it is the premises itself, rather than the individual businesses operating from that premises, which must be approved. An example may be where an exhibition taking place in a hotel is attended by individual businesses operating at tables. In this instance, the hotel premises would be required to be approved rather than the individual businesses operating from those stalls.

133.Subsection (8) provides the Welsh Ministers with a regulation-making power to exempt certain premises or vehicles from the approval requirements. The premises or vehicle may be described in the regulations by way of reference to the persons by whom they are managed or controlled; the nature of activities carried on at or in them; the different circumstances in which a special procedure is performed at or in them; or the numbers of individuals performing special procedures. This may enable for example, the premises from which a special procedure is performed by an exempted individual to also be exempted, for example performance of a procedure by a doctor in a hospital setting.

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