Structure and Summary of the Act Metal dealers Section 72 – Interpretation of provisions relating to metal dealers etc.
223.Section 72 amends section 37 of the 1982 Act to amend the definition of both metal dealers and itinerant metal dealers to encompass those who buy or sell metal as opposed to those who both buy and sell metal (which was the previous position). The 1982 Act is amended to provide the activities that are licensable and it is explicitly stated that a motor salvage operator, as defined in subsection (3), is carrying out the business of a metal dealer and will require a licence to do so.
224.The section provides that a licence is required for those who carry on a business that “wholly or substantially” consists of buying or selling scrap. This means that those who deal in scrap metal to a significant degree will require a licence but those whose involvement is peripheral or tangential will not. It will be a matter of fact or degree whether a licence is necessary in individual circumstances but, for example, it might well be the case that a plumber who acquires some metal piping in the course of domestic repairs would not require to be licensed. Conversely, a skip hirer who takes substantial amounts of metal from a building site, and that forms a substantial part of the hirer’s business may require to be licensed.