Commentary on Sections Section 1 – Removal of infringing articles
23.Section 1 amends section 21 of the 2006 Act (offence of contravening advertising regulations). It removes the power of the court by or before which a person is convicted of an offence of contravening the advertising regulations to order that person to pay to a police authority or the ODA sums in respect of expenses reasonably incurred in taking enforcement action under section 21(1) in relation to the matters to which the offence relates: see subsection (1). Sections 22(8) and 28(7) of the 2006 Act provide for a police authority or the ODA to recover from a person responsible for the contravention of advertising or trading regulations, as if it were a debt, the reasonable costs of taking action under sections 22 or 28 (enforcement of advertising and trading regulations).
24.Section 1 also amends sections 22 and 28 of the 2006 Act. It removes one of the purposes for which an article may be seized in enforcing advertising and trading regulations – the purpose of enabling the article to be forfeited in exercise of the courts’ general forfeiture powers in criminal cases: see subsections (2) and (5). The remaining purposes for which an article may be seized are to end a contravention of the regulations, to prevent a future contravention, or to enable the article to be used as evidence in criminal proceedings for the contravention.
25.Subsections (3), (4), (7) and (8) amend sections 22 and 28 to provide for articles (including animals) seized by the police in enforcing advertising and trading regulations (“infringing articles”) to be delivered to an ODA enforcement officer. This reverses the position in the 2006 Act as enacted. In future, all seized infringing articles (whether seized by a constable or an ODA officer) are to be dealt with by the ODA in accordance with new sections inserted into the 2006 Act by subsection (9).
26.Subsection (9) inserts five new sections 31A-31E into the 2006 Act which prescribe the way the ODA must deal with seized infringing articles.