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The number of workshops on the register continues to increase year by year and there is very
little variation in the number of instances in which it was found as the result of inspection that some
condition required remedy. The need of the maintenance of sanitary supervision is therefore manifest.
Reference to the number of inspections of workshop premises in the several sanitary districts shows that
this number varies greatly. While in many districts the number of inspections has been equal to three
times and in some four times the number of workshops, this number has in some districts fallen
far short of the number of workshops and this has been notably the case in Chelsea, St. Marylebone,
Bermondsey, and Lambeth. With respect to Bermondsey, the question of the sufficiency of the
sanitary staff has been''under the consideration of the Local Government Board at the instance of
the London County Council during the year. (See page 95.)
Difficulty is still experienced in inducing employers to send in lists of outworkers during the year.
Dr. Allan states that there are still many employers in AVestminster who appear never to have heard
that lists have to be sent in. It is a common experience in London that people are very prone to remain
ignorant of laws, even those which especially affect the occupations in which they are engaged, a fact
which militates against the rapid development of the administration of any new sanitary legislation in
London. The lists, moreover, which are received apparently do not show the total number of persons
who are employed as outworkers, for Miss Brown, Sanitary Inspector of Islington, states that some
employers have commented on the fact that in February and August when the lists must be forwarded,
they are not as a rule very busy, and that if lists are forwarded then, they do not represent the full
complement of workers, as employees may be engaged later in the busy season. More complete
knowledge of outworkers' premises will be gained when the recommendations of the Select Committee
on Home Work are embodied in law. These recommendations are, inter alia,—
"(a) That all Home Workers wlio are employed by other persons in producing or preparing articles for sale
should be required to register their name, address, and class of work at, and receive a certificate of such registration
from, the offices of the Local Authority, and that the keeping of accurate outworkers' lists by employers should be
strictly enforced.
"(b) That it should be an offence for any person to employ any Home Worker to produce or prepare any
articles for sale by another person unless the worker produce a certificate of registration.
''(c) That the provisions of Section 9 of the Public Health Act, 1875, with regard to factories and workshops
which are not kept clean, or are ill-ventilated or overcrowded, should be extended to rooms in which Home Work is
done, and power should be given to Sanitary and Factory Inspectors to inspect them and secure the enforcement of
the law."
The effect of inspection of homeworkers' premises is stated to lead to improved conditions
and the provision relating to the supply of water to the upper floor of tenement houses contained
in the Council's General Powers Act of 1907 is contributing to this result. Thus, Mrs. Young,
Sanitary Inspector of Islington,writes:—
"This section of the Act has proved useful in helping to better the conditions under which homework is carried
on. The time and labour necessary to carry water from the basement to the top of a three-storey house is a matter
of considerable importance and material cost to the homeworkers, with the result that in such cases, the use of water
for all purposes has been reduced to a minimum. But where the domestic water supply has been carried upstairs in
conformity with the Act, a marked improvement in the general cleanliness of the premises has followed."
Inspection of outworkers' premises is necessarily leading to an improvement of the condition
of dwellings generally. Thus Dr. King Warry reports that Miss Portlock, Sanitary Inspector of
Hackney, found on inspecting 768 home-workers' premises that in 77 instances the workroom was a
bedroom and kitchen, in 436 a kitchen, in 98 a bedroom, in 81 a living room, in 12 a scullery and in
one instance a bathroom. In 63 instances only was the room solely used as a work room. Inspection
of outworkers' premises is in practice not necessarily limited to the rooms occupied bv them.
The use as workshops of underground rooms is commented on in the report relating to Chelsea.
Dr. Parkes urges that the use of underground rooms as workshops should be prohibited unless they
comply with regulations to be made by the Secretary of State ; and he points out that if such regulations
were in force architects, in designing new buildings for use as shops on the ground floor and residential
flats on the upper floors, would cause the underground workroom to comply with the regulations, so that
the shops and basements might be let at the full rental value. He indicates the regulations which he
deems to be necessary and which would provide especially for the lighting and ventilation of the workrooms.
Time might, he thinks, be given to the owners of existing underground workshops to bring
them into compliance with the regulations.