Poisons Board: Minutes and Papers

Minutes and papers of the Poisons Board, together with some unregistered files of papers relating to poisons in the 1930s.

See also HO 305

The Poisons Board was established under the Pharmacy and Poisons Act 1933 and reconstituted under the Poisons Act 1972 (which came into operation in February 1978). A Technical Committee met between Board meetings, and from 1969 a Revision Committee considered the revision of the Poison Rules following the Medicines Act 1968. These two sub-committees were combined as the Revision and Technical Committee in 1973.

The chair and two members of the Board are appointed by the Home Secretary, another sixteen members being appointed by other ministers, the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and various other, mainly medical, organisations. The secretary and assistant secretary are Home Office staff, provided by the Dangerous Drugs Branch which is responsible for the supervision of the Poisons Acts and which has been part of the General Department (1933-1969, 1983-1987), Probation and After-care Department (1970-1981), Criminal Justice Department (1982), Criminal Policy Department (1987-1993) and Criminal Justice and Constitutional Department (1994-1995)

The function of the Board is to advise the Home Secretary on matters relating to non-medical poisons. In particular it recommends which substances should be treated as poisons for the purposes of the Act (the Poisons List) and advises on the making and amendment of rules under s.7 of the Act (the Poisons Rules) with regard to the classification, packaging, labelling, sale and supply of listed poisons.

In 1980 the Home Secretary established an Interdepartmental Working Party on Poisons Control to consider what changes were needed, given that European directives were increasingly making UK regulations superfluous. Despite initial expectations that the Poisons Board would be abolished, there was general agreement that there was still a role for a central advisory body. It has continued to meet, although the number of poisons coming within the remit of the Board has been reduced by two-thirds, the majority of poisons now being the responsibility of either the Health and Safety Executive or the Department of Trade and Industry.