Trading Representations (Disabled Persons) Act 1958

1 Sellers of goods advertised as made by, or sold for benefit of, blind or otherwise disabled persons, to be registered.

(1) It shall not be lawful, in selling or soliciting orders for goods of any description in the course of a business carried on by any person, for any representation that, or implying that, blind or otherwise disabled persons, or any description of such persons,—

(a) are employed in the production, preparation or packing, of the goods or,

(b) benefit (otherwise than as users of the goods) from the sale of the goods or the carrying on of the business,

to be made in the course of visits from house to house, or by post, unless the person carrying on the business is registered under this Act in respect of goods of that description; and any person who contravenes this subsection shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to both such fine and imprisonment.

(2) The foregoing subsection shall not apply where the business is being carried on—

(a) by a local authority, or

(b) by any fund, institution, association or undertaking which is registered or exempted from registration under the [3 & 4 Geo. 6. c. 31.] War Charities Act, 1940 or that Act as extended by section forty-one of the [11 & 12 Geo. 56. c. 29.] National Assistance Act, 1948, or

(c) by a company, association or body providing facilities under section fifteen of the [7 & 8 Geo. 6. c. 10.] Disabled Persons (Employment) Act, 1944 in pursuance of arrangements under subsection (2) of that section, or

(d) by any body of persons exempted by the Minister of Labour and National Service (hereinafter referred to as " the Minister ") from the operation of the foregoing subsection, being a body appearing to the Minister to be carrying on business without profit to its members,

or where the person carrying on the business is substantially disabled and all goods with respect to which the representation is made were either produced, prepared, packed or otherwise made ready for sale by his own labour.

(3) In England or Wales a local authority may institute proceedings for an offence under this section.

(4) Where an offence under this section which has been committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or any person purporting to act in any such capacity, he as well as the body corporate shall be deemed to be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

(5) In this section " house " includes a place of business, and " local authority " means the council of a county, county borough or county district or a metropolitan borough or the Common Council of the City of London, or, in Scotland, a county or town council.

(6) This section shall come into operation on the first day of January, nineteen hundred and fifty-nine.