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directions notices have been served to remove such insanitary conditions
as were found to exist. The “proceedings" taken in each
case have been reported to the Factory Inspector of the district as
required by Section 2 of the 1891 Factory Act.
There is a tendency on the part of the Home Office Inspectors as
regards workshops where both sexes are employed, to push the
requirement of separate closet accommodation to an extent which
has not met with the support of the Sanitary Committee of this
Vestry. The words of the section governing the matter in the
Public Health Act, are as follows:—
SANITARY CONVENIENCES FOR MANUFACTORIES, &c.
(1). "Every factory, workshop, and workplace, whether
erected before or after the passing of this Act, shall be
provided with sufficient and suitable accommodation in the
way of sanitary conveniences, regard being had to the
number of persons employed, in or in attendance at,
such building, and also where persons of both sexes are, or
are intended to be, employed, or in attendance, with proper
separate accommodation for persons of each sex.
(2). "Where it appears to a sanitary authority that this
section is not complied with in the case of any factory, workshop,
or workplace, the sanitary authority shall, by notice
served on the owner or occupier of such factory, workshop,
or workplace, require him to make the alterations and
additions necessary to secure such compliance, and if the
person served with such notice fails to comply therewith
he shall be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds,
and to a fine not exceeding forty shillings for every day
after conviction, during which the non-compliance continues.
As I read the section, it is left to the Sanitary Authority to decide
what is “sufficient and suitable accommodation," and “proper
separate accommodation," for persons of each sex. The Sanitary
Committee of this Vestry has, in one or two instances, declined to