The Milk (Special Designations) (Scotland) Order 1988

Power to revoke, suspend, or refuse to renew licences held by retailers for specified areas

12.—(1) Subject to the provisions of paragraph (3) of this article and of article 13, the local authority or the Secretary of State on appeal may revoke a licence held by a retailer for a specified area or refuse to grant such a licence by way of renewal of an existing licence on the ground of a breach of a condition thereof, being a condition to which section 8 of the Act of 1949 applies, if the holder of the licence either —

(a) has been convicted of an offence under that section by virtue of the breach in question, or (b) has been convicted, within twelve months before the time of the breach in question or after the time of it, of an offence under the Milk and Dairies (Scotland) Acts 1914 to 1949(1) (other than an offence under the said section 8) or of an offence under any order or byelaw made under any of the said Acts, and the decision of the local authority or the Secretary of State to revoke the licence or to refuse to grant a licence by way of renewal thereof as the case may be is made within twelve months of the date of the breach in question.

(2) Subject to the provisions of paragraph (3) of this article and of article 13, the local authority or the Secretary of State on appeal may suspend a licence held by a retailer for a specified area on the ground of a breach of a condition thereof:

Provided that any licence so suspended shall not be suspended for a period of more than three months by virtue of any one decision of the local authority or the Secretary of State, as the case may be, but any such period of suspension may be extended by a subsequent decision made in accordance with the provisions of this Order.

(3) A licence held by a retailer for a specified area shall not be suspended or revoked nor shall the grant of such a licence by way of renewal of an existing licence be refused on the ground of such a breach as aforesaid unless the breach is proved (in a case referred to a tribunal by virtue of the subsequent provisions of this Order) by the finding of the tribunal or (in any other case) to the satisfaction of the local authority or the Secretary of State, as the case may be; and, for the purposes of this paragraph where the holder of a licence has been convicted of an offence under section 8 of the Act of 1949 by virtue of a breach of a condition of the licence his conviction thereof shall be sufficient proof of the commission of that breach by him.

(1)

1914 c. 46; 1922 c. 54: 1934 c. 51, 1949 c. 34