Hallmarking Act 1973

• (2) A co-opted member shall hold office in accordance with the terms of his appointment.

6

A person wholly or mainly employed by an assay office, other than the clerk to an assay office, shall not be eligible for membership of the Council.

7

The first meeting of the Council shall be held on such day and at such time and place as may be appointed by the Clerk to the Birmingham Assay Office and the said Clerk shall make arrangements for notice of the meeting to be sent by post to each member of the Council not less than fourteen days before the day so appointed.

8

• (1) A member of the Council may at any time, by notice in writing to the secretary of the Council, resign his office.

• (2) When a member of the Council other than a co-opted member ceases to hold office otherwise than upon expiration of his period of office, his place shall be taken by a person appointed in the same manner as the member in question.

• (3) A person taking office by virtue of sub-paragraph (2) above shall retire when the person whose place he takes would normally have retired.

9

• (1) The Council shall elect a person to serve as chairman from among the members of the Council and notice of his election shall, as soon as is reasonably practicable, be given in writing to the Secretary of State by the secretary or other person for the time being authorised by the Council in that behalf.

• (2) The chairman of the Council shall hold office as such until the expiration of the period of his office as a member current at his election as chairman or until he resigns office as chairman or until he ceases to be a member of the Council, whichever first occurs.

• (3) If any member appointed by an assay office is elected as chairman of the Council, paragraph 8(2) of this Schedule shall have effect as if that member had ceased to hold office otherwise than upon the expiration of his period of office.

10

A person retiring from or resigning office as the chairman or as a member of the Council shall be eligible to hold that office again.

11

The powers of the Council or any committee thereof may be exercised notwithstanding any vacancy in its membership, and no proceedings of such a body shall be invalidated by any defect in the selection of a person to be a member of that body.

12

Questions arising at any meeting of the Council or of any committee thereof shall be determined by a majority of votes of the members present in person or by proxy:

13

The chief executive of an assay office and any other employee authorised by them in that behalf may attend and speak at meetings of the Council.

14

• (1) The Council may in any standing orders made by them pursuant to paragraph 16 of this Schedule make such provision as they think fit as to the giving of votes by proxy at meetings of the Council, including provision as to the form of appointment of any proxy, the submission of any completed proxy in due time before any meeting and as to all matters related to voting by proxy.

• (2) A proxy for a member of the Council or of any committee of the Council need not be a member of the Council or that committee as the case may be.

Committees

15

The Council may appoint a technical committee and one or more other committees to carry out on their behalf such of the functions of the Council as they may determine, and any such committee shall be comprised of such persons appointed on such terms as the Council may determine.

Standing Orders

16

The Council may make standing orders for regulating the proceedings (including quorum) of the Council or any committee thereof, as the Council from time to time think fit.

Incorporation, etc.

17

• (1) The Council shall be a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal and with power to hold and dispose of land.

• (2) Every instrument to which the common seal is affixed shall be signed by a member and counter-signed by the secretary of the Council or by a second such member.

Expenses and Accounts

18

• (1) The expenses of the Council (which may include reasonable provision for reserves) for the year then current shall, unless otherwise resolved by the Council, be estimated and determined upon at the first meeting of the Council in any year and shall be defrayed out of contributions paid in accordance with this paragraph by each of the assay offices.

• (2) The contribution so to be paid by any assay office shall be ascertained by applying to the amount of the said expenses of the Council that percentage (which for purposes of practical calculation may be adjusted by the Council by not more than one half of one per cent. or by any greater percentage with the agreement of that assay office) of the aggregate of the gross revenues of all the assay offices from charges for assaying and hallmarking precious metals under this Act (being revenue ascertained in manner for the time being determined by the Council), which is represented by the like gross revenue of that assay office alone and so ascertained.

• (3) Unless otherwise determined by the Council, every contribution payable under this paragraph shall be paid within three months after any such meeting of the Council as is referred to in sub-paragraph (1) of this paragraph.

19

• (1) The Council shall keep proper accounts of all sums received or paid by them . . .

• (1A) Their accounts for each year ending on or before 31st December 2002 shall be audited by the auditors appointed by the Council.

• (1B) The Council shall send their accounts for each subsequent year to the Comptroller and Auditor General as soon as reasonably practicable after the end of the year to which the accounts relate.

• (1C) The Comptroller and Auditor General shall examine, certify and report on any accounts sent to him under sub-paragraph (1B).

• (1D) The Comptroller and Auditor General shall lay before each House of Parliament a copy of any accounts sent to him under sub-paragraph (1B), together with his report on them.

• (2) No person shall be appointed as auditor under this paragraph unless he is eligible for appointment as a statutory auditor under Part 42 of the Companies Act 2006 .

20

The Council may pay to the chairman of the Council such remuneration and expenses as they see fit and to any other of their members, or to any member of a committee appointed by them, travelling, subsistence or other allowances.

Officers and Servants

21

The Council shall appoint a secretary and such other officers and servants on such terms as to remuneration, pensions or otherwise as the Council may determine.

SCHEDULE 5

Submission of new wares for assaying and hallmarking

1

An assay office may refuse to assay or mark any new ware if it is submitted at a stage of its manufacture which is unreasonable for assaying of and striking of marks on the new ware.

Assaying and hallmarking

2

• (1) Upon receipt of any article submitted to an assay office for assay and hallmarking, the assay office shall examine the same to ascertain whether it is in their opinion sufficiently advanced in workmanship and, if composed of one or more parts, whether all the parts are present, and also whether the article complies with the conditions of this Act so as to permit it to be struck with the approved hallmarks; and, if the assay office are dissatisfied as respects any of the foregoing matters, they shall return the article without making an assay thereof.

• (2) If upon receipt and view of any article submitted to an assay office for assay and hallmarking, the assay office shall suspect that other materials than precious metal of not less than the minimum fineness therefor have been introduced or concealed in any such article, the assay office may cause the same to be cut; and if upon cutting—

• (a) any such other materials shall be found therein, the said article shall be broken and defaced and it (or the value thereof) shall be forfeited to the assay office and applied towards their general expenses;

• (b) no such other materials are found therein, the assay office (but not any other person) shall be liable in damages to any person interested in the article.

• (3) Subject to sub-paragraphs (1), (2) and (5) of this paragraph, the assay office may cause to be drawn, scraped, cut or otherwise removed from the article such quantity of precious metal or take such other sample or do such other thing as may be necessary to enable an accurate assay to be made of the article and may retain the quantity so removed and apply it (or the value thereof) towards their general expenses.

• (4) In the event of any part of any article or any sample from any article being found to be of a fineness—

• (a) less than the minimum fineness for the precious metal of that article, the article the subject of the assay shall be returned to the person submitting the same after payment of the prescribed charge, and if the article is a new ware the assay office shall have power before so returning the article, to break it and any other articles which were submitted with it in the same parcel of work;

• (b) not less than such minimum fineness, the said article shall be struck with the approved hallmarks and delivered to the person submitting the same after payment of the prescribed charge.

• (5) If an assay office are satisfied where two or more articles being new wares are submitted to them in one parcel of work for assay and hallmarking that all the articles so submitted are intended to assay to a single standard of fineness, the assay office may, notwithstanding anything in sub-paragraph (3) of this paragraph, carry out a single assay in respect of some or all of the articles contained in such parcel.

Inspections by H.M. Mint

3

• (1) Her Majesty’s Mint may at any time and from time to time as thought fit in normal office hours visit any assay office for the purpose of inspecting the assay department of that office and of ascertaining and assessing the accuracy and efficiency of their methods and procedures of assay; and a report on the assay department of each assay office shall be prepared once in every period of fourteen months by the Queen’s Assay Master and presented to the Deputy Master of Her Majesty’s Mint, copies of such reports having first been sent to the Council and the assay office concerned.

• (2) If such assay methods, in the opinion of Her Majesty’s Mint, are not of such a standard as will enable that assay office to report accurately on the fineness of any article, or articles, of precious metal, then Her Majesty’s Mint shall notify the Council and the assay office forthwith and make to each of them such recommendations as appear requisite in relation to such assay methods; and the Council shall consult with the assay office as to the action Q to be taken upon such recommendations.

• (3) Her Majesty’s Mint shall be entitled to make a reasonable charge to each assay office in respect of the performance of their functions under this paragraph.

Safe custody of marks

4

• (1) Each assay office shall be responsible both for the safe custody of the dies to be used by that assay office for the purpose of striking articles with the approved hallmarks and other marks and for the disposal of such dies as and when the same are no longer required.

• (2) The Council may after consultation with all the assay offices make regulations in or in connection with the discharge by assay offices of the duty imposed upon them by sub-paragraph (1) of this paragraph and as to the manner in which any such die is to be made or used and generally in relation thereto.

SCHEDULE 6

Part I — Orders Under Section 16(1) on Application

1

Before making application for an order under subsection (1)(b) of section 16 of this Act, the applicants shall consult the assay office the subject of the proposed order and, if so requested by the assay office, shall submit to the Secretary of State a draft of the proposed order and such written observations as the assay office may make to the applicants within the period of forty-two days after being so consulted; and, following the submission of such a draft and observations, the applicants shall take no further steps in connection with the proposed application pending a decision of the Secretary of State, who shall give written notice to the applicants and the assay office either that he refuses to consider such an application or that it is (without prejudice, however, to subsequent refusal thereof) to be allowed to proceed.

2

On application for any order to which this Part of this Schedule applies the applicants shall submit to the Secretary of State a draft of the order which they desire him to make and shall publish once at least in each of two successive weeks in one or more newspapers circulating in the locality wherein the assay office the subject of the order carries on or is intended to carry on business (as the case may be) a notice—

• (a) stating the general effect of the order;

• (b) specifying a place in the said area where a copy of the draft order may be inspected by any person free of charge at all reasonable hours during a period of twenty-eight days from the date of the first publication of the notice; and

• (c) stating that, within the said period, any person may by notice to the Secretary of State object to the application.

3

Not later than the date on which the said notice is first published, the applicants shall, if the Secretary of State so requires, serve a copy of the notice and of the draft order on any person specified by the Secretary of State.

4

The applicants shall also publish in the Gazette a notice stating that they are about to apply for an order under section 16 of this Act, naming the county and district in the locality wherein the assay office the subject of the order carries on or is intended to carry on business (as the case may be), specifying a place where a copy of the draft order may be inspected, and giving the name and date of issue of a local newspaper in which the notice explaining the effect of the order applied for will be found.

5

The applicants shall, at the request of any person interested, furnish to him a copy of the draft order upon payment of such charge as they think reasonable not exceeding fifty pence, or such higher sum as the Secretary of State may from time to time authorise in writing.

6

The Secretary of State may make an order in the terms of the draft submitted to him or in those terms as modified in such manner as he thinks fit, but where he proposes to make any modification which appears to him substantially to affect the character of the order as applied for, he shall take such steps as appear to him to be sufficient and reasonably practicable for informing the applicants and other persons likely to be concerned, and shall not make the order until such period for consideration of, and comment upon, the proposed modification as he thinks reasonable has elapsed.

7

If, before the expiration of the twenty-eight days referred to in paragraph 2 of this Part of this Schedule, or of twenty-five days from the publication of the said notice in the Gazette, or before the expiration of any period specified in notices given under the last foregoing paragraph, an objection is received by the Secretary of State from any person appearing to him to be affected by the application, or as the case may be, by the proposed modification, and the objection is not withdrawn, the Secretary of State, before making any order on the application, shall (unless he is of opinion that the objection is frivolous or too trivial to warrant the holding of an inquiry or hearing with respect to it) either—

• (a) cause a local inquiry to be held; or

• (b) afford to the objector and to the applicants, as well as to any other persons to whom it appears to the Secretary of State expedient to afford it, an opportunity of appearing before, and being heard by, a person appointed by the Secretary of State for the purpose.

8

On the making of an order to which this Part of this Schedule applies, the Secretary of State shall give notice of the making of the order and the effect thereof to any person who has objected thereto under the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Schedule, and has not withdrawn that objection, and in that case the order shall not have effect until the expiration of twenty-eight days from the date of the said notice, and if within that period any such person gives notice to the Secretary of State that he objects to the order and the objection is not withdrawn, the order shall be subject to special parliamentary procedure.

9

The costs incurred by the Secretary of State in connection with the making and notification of an order under this Part of this Schedule, including any costs incurred in relation to any such order under the Statutory Orders (Special Procedure) Act 1945, shall be paid by the applicants.

10

In this Part of this Schedule “the Gazette” means in relation to publication of a notice as respects an order concerning an assay office carrying on or intended to carry on business—

• (a) in England and Wales, the London Gazette;

• (b) in Scotland, the Edinburgh Gazette; and

• (c) in Northern Ireland, the Belfast Gazette.

Part II — Modifications of Part I of this Schedule for Purposes of Orders Under Section 16(2) Where no Application

11

In relation to any order under section 16(2) of this Act the provisions of Part I of this Schedule shall have effect subject to the following modifications—

• (a) For paragraph 1 and for the words in paragraph 2 before “shall publish” there shall be substituted—

(1) Before making an order under subsection (2) of section 16 of this Act the Secretary of State— (1) shall in the case of an order under paragraphs (a) or (b) of that subsection consult the Council and shall, in the case of an order under paragraph (c) of that subsection, consult the assay office the subject of the proposed order; (2)

;

• (b) Paragraphs 3 and 9 shall be omitted;

• (c) In paragraphs 4 and 5 for reference to the applicants there shall be substituted reference to the Secretary of State;

• (d) For paragraph 6 there shall be substituted the following paragraph—

• (e) in paragraph 7—

• (i) for the word “application” where it first occurs there shall be substituted the word “order”;

• (ii) the words “on the application” shall be omitted;

• (iii) in paragraph (b) for the words “the applicants” there shall be substituted the words “such of them the Council and any assay office as might have been applicants for such an order under section 16(1) of this Act” ’.

SCHEDULE 7

Part I—Public General Acts

Acts of Parliament of Ireland

Part II—Local Acts

Editorial notes