Home Department written question – answered at on 16 April 2012.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what reasons itinerant collectors are exempted from a proposed ban on cash payments for scrap metal.
The only exemption will be for those itinerant collectors who have registered with their local authority and also been granted an order under Section 3(1) of the 1964 Scrap Metal Dealers Act. The Section 3(1) order was intended to spare very small local businesses from some of the record-keeping requirements the Act places on larger dealers, and can be granted only by the local authority in consultation with the chief police officer. As enforcement of the new offence of cash payment will be reliant on those record-keeping requirements, including the additional requirement inserted by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, it is appropriate that those who are currently exempt from those requirements are also exempt from the new offence. However, by definition these itinerant collectors have no capacity to process scrap metal, and will need to sell whatever they collect to a dealer who is subject to the new offence.
We will work with the Local Government Association and Association of Chief Police Officers on advice for local authorities and police forces on enforcement of the requirements of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act and the criteria for issuing any new Section 3(1) orders.
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