View report page

WORKSHOP SUPERVISION.
53
from whom 254 additional addresses were received. The names of the districts from which
such addresses were received, and the number of lists sent by each, are set out below:—
Kensington 14 lists Chelsea
Westminster 13 „ Fulham 2 lists each
Finsbury 11 lists Marylebone
Hampstead each Camberwell
Willesden 6 lists Lambeth
Hammersmith 5 „ St. Pancras 1 list each
City of London 3 lists
Shoreditch each
In addition to the addresses contained in the above lists, 35 other premises came to the
knowledge of the Department in the course of other inspections. These will be specially
referred to later on. The Register of Outworkers contained 315 effective entries at the close
#
of the year, comprising—
Factory, 1; workshops, 101; workplaces, 1; and single workers, 212.
There is so much ambiguity in the meaning and so many difficulties attend the working
of the "Homework" provisions (Part VI.) of the Act, that some space may be usefully devoted
to a consideration of the chief of them. It is somewhat remarkable that this Part of the Act,
although headed "Homework," contains no reference in any of its Sections to "homework"
or "homeworkers." Nowhere in the Act is there a definition of either of those terms, and
reliance must be placed on the interpretation to be given to the first sub-section of Section
107 contained in this Part of the Act. That sub-section enacts—
(1). The occupier of every factory and workshop and every contractor employed by any such
occupier in the business of the factory or workshop shall:—
(a) Keep in the prescribed form and manner, and with the prescribed particulars, lists
showing the names and addresses of all persons directly employed by him,
either as workmen or contractors, in the business of the factory or workshop,
outside the factory or workshop, and the places where they are employed;
This obligation is not imposed on the occupiers of all factories and workshops, but only on
those carrying on certain trades or manufactures specified in the Act, and on such others as
the Home Secretary may by special Order direct.
Some of the difficulties attaching to the interpretation, of the provisions are exemplified
by a Return which was presented to the House of Commons in June of last year, and
subsequently sent to all local authorities, with a circular letter from the Home Office calling
attention to the duties of the authorities, and urging a more efficient administration of the
"Home Work "provisions of the Act.
That return was ordered to be prepared from the reports of medical officers of health,
"as to the administration .... during 1904 .... of the Homework provisions of the Factory
and Workshop Act, 1901, .... giving particularly the following information:—
(a) Generally, the number of inspections of home-workers' premises, the number of notices
served in respect of them, &c.
(b) The number of out-workers' lists received . . . and the number of out-workers shown by
them.
(c) The number of notices served . . . under Sec. 108.
(d) The number of orders . . . under Sec. 110.
(c) The number of cases of infectious disease notified in home-workers' premises.