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Appendix B.
FACTORY AND WORKSHOP LEGISLATION.
The Factory and Workshop Act, 1895, amends, without codifying,
the earlier Acts, dating from 1878, which regulate factories
and workshops as regards sanitation, employment, &c. The new
Act increases the complexity, if not confusion, which existed prior
to its being added to the Statute roll, and it is to be regardod
more as a "stop-gap" pending the drafting of a "code," rather
than a serious attempt to amend factory legislation.
The officers of local authorities have nothing to do with factories,
with one exception to be presently noted, unless their
intervention is called for by the factory inspector, but by Sec. 3
of the Factory and Workshop Act, 1891, all workshops are placed,
for sanitary supervision, under the local authorities.* A "workshop"
is defined by Sec. 93, "Definitions" of the Factory and
Workshop Act, 1878, as follows:—
The expression " workshop " in this Act means :—
(1) Any premises or places named in Part Two of the Fourth Schedule
to this Act, which are not a factory within the meaning of this
Act.†
(2) Also any premises, room, or place not being a factory within the
meaning of this Act, in which premises, room, or place, or within
* Section 3 is as follows: —(1) Sections three and thirty-three of the Factory
and Workshop Act, 1878 (which relates to cleanliness, ventilation and
overcrowding in, and limewashing of, factories and workshops) shall cease to
apply to workshops.
(2) For the purpose of their duties with respect to workshops (not being
workshops to which the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, applies), a sanitary
authority and their officers shall, without prejudice to their other powers,
have all such powers of eutry, inspection, taking legal proceedings, or otherwise,
as an inspector under the principal Act.
†Part Two of the Fourth 8chedule specifies hut works, rope works, bakehouses, lace warehouses,
shipbuilding yards, quarries, and pit.banks.