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Original Consultation
1. Background
Currently the main legislation concerning crafts is the Malta Crafts Council Act (Cap 421) which however focuses more on the operations of the Malta Crafts Council rather than crafts, vesting it with a number of functions, powers and duties related to craft. The Act stipulates that the Council is to be made up of a number of representatives of various ministries and three representatives to be elected by and from among crafts-persons registered with the Council.
Regretfully, since the enactment of the Act in question, it has always been difficult to find crafts-persons who were in a position to participate in the Council elections. Moreover, since those who were elected practised specific crafts there frequently was an inadequate representation of the crafts spectrum. This shortcoming resulted, contrary to what was intended, in there never being a proper and effective consultation structure within the Council and it was only with the intervention of the the Commerce Department that consultation has been possible.
In addition to the above, the Malta Crafts Council Act is lacking in that it does not provide the Malta Crafts Council with a formal administrative and operational set up to assist it in the carrying out of its duties. As a result, while the Council meets regularly once a month to register new crafts-persons and to put forward proposals in line with its remit, it is the Commerce Department which, over the years, has executed most of the decisions taken by the Council in addition to the planning and implementation of other initiatives which did not emanate from Council meetings.
Finally, the Malta Crafts Council Act does not empower the Council to take any action in the case of transgressions involving products falsely purporting to be Maltese crafts, not even when such transgressions are committed by registered craftspersons. Unfortunately, the Act does not empower the Council to strike off its register crafts-persons who either violate rules and/or conditions established by the Council or the Department or crafts-persons who are in breach of any of the provisions of the Act and/or its Regulations.
Following a public consultation earlier this year where a new act was proposed to address these shortcomings, it is now being proposed that while the proposal to create an office of the registrar put forward in the earlier draft be retained, certain duties will be devolved to the soon to be established Malta Crafts Foundation to permit more direct focus on the promotion of Maltese Crafts.
3. Submission of input
Submissions were sent in through one of the following channels:
By post: Commerce Department
Lascaris Bastions
Daħlet Ġnien is-Sultan
Valletta VLT 1933
Submission were received by 15 August 2019.
We thank you for your input.