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205
[1906
(3) Home-work. Under this heading comes the prevention of homework
being carried on in dwellings which are injurious or dangerous to the
health of the workers through overcrowding, want of ventilation, or other
sanitary defect, or in dwellings in which infectious disease exists.
(4) The keeping of the lists of outworkers in certain branches of
industry which are to be furnished by employers, and the transmission of
the name and place of employment of any such outworker, who does not
reside in the district to the Council of the district in which he works.
(5) The keeping of a register of workshops.
It may be convenient to state here that sec. 102 of the Act, which
deals with the enforcement of the law as to retail bakehouses, enacts
that " for the purposes of this section, the Medical Officer of Health of the
district council shall have and may exercise all the powers of entry,
inspection, taking legal proceedings, and otherwise of an inspector "—i.e.,
of a Factory Inspector.
It is also the duty of the Medical Officer of Health, under sec. 133 of
the Act, to inform the District Inspector of Factories if he finds any
woman, young person or child employed in a workshop in which no
abstract of the Act is posted up.
Default of Council (Sec. 4).—In the event of the Council failing to
administer the provisions of the Act, or of the law relating to public health in
so far as it affects factories, workshops or workplaces, the Secretary of State
may by Order authorise a Factory Inspector during such time as may be mentioned
in the Order, to enforce these provisions, and the Factory Inspector
shall be entitled to recover from the Council any expenses incurred by him
which are not recovered from any other person.
Information by Factory Inspectors (Sec. 5).—Where a Factory Inspector
finds " any act, neglect, or default, in relation to any drain, water closet, earth
closet, privy, ashpit, water supply, nuisance, or other matter in a factory or
workshop, is punishable or remediable under the law relating to public health,"
but not under the Factory and Workshop Act, he shall give the Council notice
in writing.
Having so far explained the duties of the Council and the general scope
of the Act, it becomes the duty of your Medical Officer to report on its
administration.