Cancer Act 1939
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/2-3/13/section/4
To paraphrase the legal stuff, section four of the Act says:
Nobody (including limited companies) can publish any advert – meaning a notice, circular, label, wrapper or other document, or any announcement made orally or by any means of producing or transmitting sounds – aimed at the public, offering to treat anyone for cancer, to prescribe any treatments for the disease, or to give advice in connection to cancer treatment.
If they do, they could be convicted, fined and/or imprisoned for up to three months.
They can avoid this fate by proving that their advertisement is not aimed at the public, but instead at members of Parliament or the House of Lords, local authorities or governing bodies of voluntary hospitals (those founded and run by charities); registered medical practitioners, nurses or pharmacists (or anyone training to be one of those); that the advert was in a technical publication aimed at any of those people; or that they didn’t know it was being published at all.
There’s also a get-out clause for adverts published by local authorities and voluntary hospitals themselves, and for any person acting “with the sanction of the Minister [of Health].” So if Jeremy Hunt says it’s OK then it’s fine.
Implicit in the term ‘advertisement’ is that there is a financial incentive: a person or company is selling something (whether it’s an actual treatment or regime, or advice about treating the disease) claiming to treat cancer.
That’s the letter of the law. Now let’s take a look at the spirit of it – how it’s applied in practice and what it’s meant to achieve.
its basically a gag order.
Section 4 of the Cancer Act, 1939, as it currently stands, including repealed and altered sections:
(1) No person shall take any part in the publication of any advertisement—
(a) containing an offer to treat any person for cancer, or to prescribe any remedy therefor, or to give any advice in connection with the treatment thereof
(b) [Repealed]
(2)If any person contravenes any of the provisions of the foregoing subsection, he shall be liable on summary conviction, in the case of a first conviction, to a fine not exceeding [Repealed fifty pounds][level 3 on the standard scale], and, in the case of a subsequent conviction, to a fine not exceeding [Repealed one hundred pounds][level 3 on the standard scale] or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, or to both such a fine and such imprisonment.
(3) [Repealed]
(4)In any proceedings for a contravention of subsection (1) of this section, it shall be a defence for the person charged to prove—
(a)that the advertisement to which the proceedings relate was published only so far as was reasonably necessary to bring it to the notice of persons of the following classes or of one or some of them, that is to say,—
(i) members of either House of Parliament or of a local authority or of a governing body of a voluntary hospital;
(ii) [repealed]
(iii) registered medical practitioners;
(iv) registered nurses;
(v) registered pharmacists and [Repealed F5persons lawfully conducting a retail pharmacy business in accordance with section 69 of the M1Medicines Act 1968];
(vi) persons undergoing training with a view to becoming registered medical practitioners, registered nurses or registered pharmacists;
(vii) [Repealed]
(b)that the said advertisement was published only in a publication of a technical character intended for circulation mainly amongst persons of the classes mentioned in the last preceding paragraph or one of some of those classes; or
(c) that the said advertisement was published in such circumstances that he did not know and had no reason to believe that he was taking part in the publication thereof.
(5)Nothing in this section shall apply in respect of any advertisement published by a local authority or by the governing body of a voluntary hospital or by any person acting with the sanction of the Minister.
(6) [Repealed]
[Replaced by 2008 legislation
(7)Each of the following may institute proceedings under this section—
(a)a county council in England;
(b)a non-metropolitan district council for an area in England for which there is no county council;
(c)a London borough council;
(d)the Common Council of the City of London; or
(e)a county council or county borough council in Wales.]
(8) In this section the expression “advertisement” includes any notice, circular, label, wrapper or other document, and any announcement made orally or by any means of producing or transmitting sounds.
From Legislation.gov.uk
