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167
[1902
Statutory Rules and Orders, 1902.
No. 23.
FACTORY AND WORKSHOP.—Health.
Order of the Secretary of State, dated January 17, 1902, modifying the Proportion of
Cubic Feet of Space to be provided in a Workshop used as a Sleeping Place.
In pursuance of the power conferred on me by sub-section (8) of section 8 of
the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, I hereby direct that, where a workshop
other than a domestic workshop is occupied by day as a workshop and by night as
a sleeping place, the proportion of cubic feet of space prescribed in sub-section (1)
of the said section shall be modified by substituting " four hundred " for " two
hundred and fifty," and accordingly such workshop shall, for the purposes of the
law relating to public health, be deemed to be so overcrowded as to be dangerous
or injurious to the health of the persons employed therein if the number of cubic
feet of space in any room bears to the number of persons employed at one time in
the room a proportion less than four hundred cubic feet to each person.
Chas. T. Ritchie,
One of His Majesty's Principal
Home Office, Whitehall, Secretaries of State.
17th January, 1902.
Drainage of Floors.—No action was required to be taken under the
provision of Section 8 of the Act, which requires that in every workshop in
which any process is carried on which renders the floor liable to be wet to such
an extent that the wet is capable to be removed by drainage, adequate means
shall be provided for carrying it off.
Sanitary Accommodation.—In no respect have the workshops been so
much improved as with regard to the sanitary accommodation provided.
During the last eight years, over 400 w.c.’s, of which 326 were erected under
Inspector West's directions, have been newly supplied, while many hundreds
have been greatly improved. During the year 16 additional w.c.'s have been
erected and 138 improved.
It has been an unfortunatc circumstance that up to this year there has been
no standard fixed by the Act or by the Home Office. At last, however,
chiefly through the difficulty experienced at Ipswich and other places by H.M.
Inspectors in enforcing their requirements in factories, owing to absence of any
definite regulations on the subject, the Home Secretary has recently issued an
order which lays down that 1 w.c. should be provided for every 25 females, and
1 w.c. for every 25 males.
The order which is of considerable importance does not under section 9 of
the Act apply to London, but only to the country in general. Nevertheless it
is certain to be accepted every where as the standard.