London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Hampstead 1962

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hampstead Borough]

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47
(b) Subject to Section 90 of the Housing Act, 1957, in the case
of a hostel boarding house, guest house, boarding school or
similar establishment, the maximum number of persons who mayoccupy
any room wholly or partly used as a sleeping apartment
shall be such as to allow not less than 400 cubic feet of free air
space for each person, "
A "housing team" is being set up within the Department for the
specific purpose of continuing inspections of houses in multiple
occupation, This has been reinforced by the appointment of an
additional inspector especially for the purpose of stepping-up the rate
of inspections and subsequently supervising the works entailed thereby.
INSPECTION AND SUPERVISION OF FOOD
Food and Drugs Act, 1955, Food Hygiene (General) Regulations, I960
The "self-service" system in food shops is continually extending
and is now being applied with modification to the smaller one-man
type of business, where its adoption may well be its only chance of
survival, unless the demand for "personal service" should return.
Now that the prepacking of almost every kind of food has
reached such proportions, the public seem to prefer to select their
own goods and possibly save a few pence by taking advantage of price
wars between rival "multiples" in spite of the obvious criticisms and
limitations of the system,
It follows that the proper labelling of all food commodities is
now of paramount importance and demands a much greater degree of
control by the Department to ensure that: -
1. - the origin of the prepacked goods is disclosed;
2. - wherever possible, the date of prepacking of perishable goods
is indicated (this requirement is, of course, nullified if
actual "shelf" conditions in retailers shops are unsatisfactory);
3. - the labels are not so illustrated and the contents described that
the purchaser forms an incorrect assessment of what is offered.
The Public Analyst has criticised the descriptions of a number
of foods during the year. These have subsequently been amended to