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imposed by the Factory and Workshops Act will render the staff inadequate for efficient administration.
He discusses the question of the appointment of a female sanitary inspector and of
an assistant medical officer of health. The medical officer of health of Stoke Newington mentions
the recent decision of the borough council to appoint a third sanitary inspector. The medical
officer of health of Hackney states that if the workshops on the register are to be inspected
once or more during the year an increase in the staff will be necessary. The medical officer of
health of Finsbury reports that during 1901 there had been no factory inspector, but in March,
1902, the borough council decided to appoint an additional inspector whose services will be
devoted to the inspection of factories and workshops. In Bermondsey the borough council
appointed two additional inspectors in December, 1901.. In Lambeth a female sanitary inspector
was appointed. In Battersea it was decided to appoint a male and a female inspector of workshops.
In Wandsworth the appointment of a female inspector of workshops was decided on.
The medical officer of health of Camberwell calls attention to the need for a larger staff
in the following paragraph extracted from his report—
In my report for the year 1900 is inserted a statement that I had made on the question of the
necessity of the re-organisation of the sanitary staff, with the additions which were, in my opinion,
necessary for the proper equipment of the office. It was adjourned from the old vestry to be dealt with
by the council, and early in the year 1901 some members of the committee personally inspected the
working of the department, and the matter was also gone into by the combined Drainage Sub-Committee
as a whole. The result of their deliberations was that no increase was necessary, except that a female
sanitary inspector was to be appointed. The matter, therefore, so far as I am concerned, is at an
end ; but I still repeat the opinion that the department has neither a proper number of inspectors nor
of clerks on its staff, and that the only way that I can see out of the difficulty is to carry out the
previous suggestions and additions advised in that report. Books and records of inspections, which, for
purposes of supervision imperatively demand careful indexing, are crowded out of the daily work by
the other duties of the clerical staff, and unless a broader view be taken of the necessities of this
department, the present unsatisfactory state of things must continue. The new duties in connection
with the proper recording of the inspection of milkshops, etc., which were cast upon the local authorities by
the London Government Act, almost require a clerk to themselves.
In Deptford the Borough Council decided to appoint two additional inspectors. The
medical officer of health of Woolwich states that factories and workshops could not be inspected
as much as is desirable owing to the fact that there was no special inspectors for this purpose
and that the ordinary inspectors' time was fully occupied with other duties.

To the London County Council.
Shirley F. Murphy,
Medical Officer of Health.
December, 1902.