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100
"Complaints.—These are occasionally received from
workers, visitors, or societies, such as the Industrial Law
Committee, the Women's Industrial Council, etc. Complaints
relating to sanitary matters in connection with workshops,
whether anonymous or otherwise, are attended to as soon as
practicable, and, I may add, are generally found to be well
founded. Complaints regarding long hours of work are
referred to the Lady Factory Inspectors' Department at the
Home Office. Her Majesty's Superintending Inspector of
Workshops has forwarded complaints of nuisances observed
by the factory inspectors, all of which have been dealt with.
"Notifications of all new workshops discovered by me
have been made to Her Majesty's Inspector in writing, as
required by the Acts. It may be mentioned that it is
obligatory on the sanitary authority, through the medical
officer of health, to report to the Factory Department all
cases of the employment of" protected persons," i.e.,"children"
between 11 and 14; "young persons," i.e., persons of both
sexes between 14 and 18; and "women," i.e., females over 18
years of age. The factory inspectors are required to forward
to the sanitary authority notice of all workshops of which
they may have received notice in writing from the occupiers.
The addresses of workshops, &c., discovered by Her Majesty's
Inspectors casually, are not forwarded, as, in the interests of
public health, it is desirable they should be. The omission to
forward information is explained on the ground of probability
that the sanitary authority may already have knowledge of
the workshops, which is often not the case. I occasionally
come across workshops, in private houses, which have been
known to the Factory Department for years, and not known
to the sanitary authority; there being no evidence to show
that a business was carried on therein: ten such instances
occurred during last year. This appears to me to be a defect