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Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health,—1893. 39
Abstract of Report on a Proposed Increase of the
Staff of Sanitary Inspectors.
In 1892, I pointed out that a staff of two sanitary inspectors was quite inadequate
to carry out the duties devolving on the Vestry. That the time of those officials was
fully occupied by attention to complaints, the supervision of infectious cases, the
visiting of works in progress, Court work, and various other pressing duties.
Little time, therefore, was left for carrying out the provisions of the Public Health
(London) Act, the Factory and Workshop Acts, the Housing of the Working Classes
Act, to say nothing of other stringent Acts and Bye-laws.
In another portion of the Report (Page 18) you will find it is recorded that
"I would urge the great necessity which exists for enforcing the bye-laws for the
registration and inspection, promotion of cleanliness, and prevention of overcrowding
in lodgings, let or occupied by members of more than one family. Owing, however,
to the insufficiency of the inspecting staff, these bye-laws have hitherto never been
enforced. I would suggest after sufficient help has been provided to prevent the
law from remaining a dead letter, that a house-to-house examination of the tenements
let in lodgings, and coming within the powers of the bye-laws, should forthwith be
made, and that the results be recorded in special registers for each district.
"A list of those houses suggested as being the most appropriate to be placed under
the operation of the bye-laws might then be submitted to the Public Health
Committee for their approval, and handbills, setting forth, in a condensed form the
powers and penalties in the bye-laws, be delivered to each of the owners and
occupiers.
" I have observed in Provincial towns, that the owners of tenement property have
generally been very willing to bring their premises into conformity with the bye-laws,
and have welcomed the assistance which the systematic inspection has rendered
them in inculcating more cleanly habits amongst their tenants."
To these words—carefully considered before they were committed to print—I have
now little to add.
Since they were written, the Bye-laws of the London County Council under
the Public Health (London) Act, have become an established fact, and have already,
in several instances, been acted upon and enforced by your Committee. In a Special
Report I have stated that large numbers of underground rooms continue to be
illegally occupied in this low-lying and densely crowded district.
In order to obviate this evil effectually, it is absolutely necessary to keep up a
regular and systematic inspection, just as in the case of the tenement
dwellings. Unwieldly over-crowded " model " dwellings, thickly scattered over this
district, also require a like attention before it is possible for them to justify their
name. In the absence of legal powers to compel the owners of these "models " to
exercise an efficient supervision over the tenants, the Sanitary Authority should,
I think, themselves insist that Section 107—(1) of the Public Health (London) Act,
be carried out.
This section says :—Every Sanitary Authority shall appoint an adequate number
of fit and proper persons as sanitary inspectors, and every such inspector shall be a
person qualified and competent, by his knowledge and experience, to perform the
duties of his office."
Notwithstanding the fact that progress has been made during recent years in
sanitary science, and new compulsory laws have been enacted, instead of a corresponding
increase in the inspectorial staff, an actual decrease in their number has
taken place. At the present date the Vestry have two inspectors as against three
twenty-seven years ago.