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A Bill to amend the Metropolis Management Acts with respect to
sewers and drains has been prepared and brought in by Colonel Hughes,
Sir Charles Hall, Mr, James Stuart, Mr. Harrison and Mr. Kimber.
The Bill is to the effect that in addition to the meaning of "drains" in
existing Acts it " shall also include any drain which has not been
approved as a sewer either by the Metropolitan Commissioners or
by the Metropolitan Board of Works or by the London County
Council."
FACTORY AND WORKSHOPS ACT, 1895.
The Factories and Workshops Act, 1895, passed through the
House of Lords in one day. The Lords adopted its provisions precisely
as they left the House of Commons, and having received the
Royal assent, it will come into operation at the beginning of 1896.
The Bill was introduced by the late Home Secretary, to amend and
extend the law relating to Factories and Workshops.
The Act comprises 50 sections and three schedules. It introduces
no new principle, but simply extends factory legislation, and will
make preceding Acts more workable.
For the first time in English law there is a statutory definition of
overcrowding.
Section 1 enacts that a factory or workshop is to be deemed overcrowded
if every person within it is not provided with 250 cubic feet
of air space, or with 400 cubic feet during any period of overtime.
These amounts are subject to modification by the Secretary of State
during the use of artificial light, other than electric light, and to
increase in particular processes or handicrafts.
Section 1 (3) enacts that "Section 78 of the principal Act (i.e. the
Act of 1878) shall be read as if there were included among the notices
required by that section to be affixed, a notice specifying the number
of persons who may be employed in each room of the factory or