View report page

60
„Routine inspections of the workshops shown on the above list were carried out during the
year, and complaints from His Majesty's inspectors or anonymous sources received immediate
attention.''
Ventilation.—In response to notices, additional means of ventilation were provided in 28 of the
workrooms visited. Whilst a very marked improvement in the ventilation of workshops has been
effected in the last eleven years, it is still necessary to serve notices from time to time in cases where
unventilated gas stoves are added in existing workrooms or where premises become occupied as
workshops which have not hitherto been used for the purpose.
Overcrowding.—Eleven cases of overcrowding were dealt with during the year, as compared with
10 in the year 1910, and 15 in the year 1909. Employers are provided by the Council with
cards showing the maximum number of workers allowed in each workroom, and cases where
the number shown on the card is deliberately exceeded are now of rare occurrence.
Sanitary Conveniences.—During the year defects in 34 sanitary conveniences attached to workshops
were found and remedied. In a workshop where the sanitary accommodation was insufficient
for the number of workers employed, seven additional w.c.'s were provided, and in nine cases
notices were served requiring the provision of separate accommodation for men and women employed
in the same workshop.
An analysis of the return made to the Home Office on „Home Work„ shows that 1,072
addresses and names of outworkers were received on the lists sent in by the employers residing
in this Borough, and of these 788 were forwarded to the Councils of the respective districts in which
they were situated; the remaining 284 being in Kensington.
These 284 names and addresses, together with 306 received from other Councils, will, when
divided by half (since most, if not all are duplicates sent in twice in the year) give approximately
the number of homeworkers on the register of the Borough of Kensington.
Of the 295 out-workers so registered, some are employed on premises which are factories or
workshops within the meaning of the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, others work in domestic
workshops, whilst the remainder are the genuine „Home Workers„ engaged in their homes on
the work given out to them by various firms and contractors in Kensington and other districts.
HOME WORK

The factories and workshops on the above list are included in the Table, which show the trades
carried on in the workshops on the Council's register.