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113
Factory and Workshop Act, 1901.
Factory and Workshop Act, 1901.
The following part of this report is made pursuant to
section 132 of the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, which
provides as follows:—"The Medical Officer of Health of every
District Council shall in his Annual Report to them report
specifically on the administration of this Act in workshops
and workplaces, and he shall send a copy of his Annual
Report, or so much of it as deals with this subject, to the
Secretary of State." The report, however, is not limited to an
account of the administration of the above Act in workshops
and workplaces; it contains in addition a statement of the
work done by the Council in carrying out their duties in relation
to factories under the Public Health (London) Act, 1891.
Workshops.
The workshops in Battersea are supervised by the two
Workshop Inspectors, Miss Dawson and Mr. Benjamin.
Workshops in which women only are employed are inspected
by Miss Dawson. Mr. Benjamin has charge of the men's
workshops, while those in which both sexes are employed are
supervised by both Inspectors.
Pursuant to section 131 of the Factory Act, a register of
workshops is kept, and it has been found that the card register,
which has now been in use nearly four years, has many
advantages over the ordinary book register. Each workshop
has a special dossier, in which are filed all the reports, plans,
letters, and other papers relating to that particular workshop.
At the beginning of the year 1905, there were 493 workshops
on the register. During the year the occupation of 70
of these premises as workshops was discontinued, while 138
new workshops were registered, so that at the end of the year
the number on the register was 561, in which were employed
2,477 persons: 1,039 males and 1,438 females.