View report page

* See pages 110, 112 and 116. † 28 Males and 4 Females. || 31 Males and 4 Females.
The Public Health and Housing Committee considered a circular
letter from the Home Office respecting the administration of the Home
Work Provisions of the Factory Act.
The communication stated that the Secretary of State desired "to
bring specially before them the question of the enforcement by the
Council and their officers of the provisions in the Act which deal with
the subject of home work, that is, work in the manufacture, repair, &c.,
of articles by the worker in his or her own house." . . . "The inference
cannot be avoided that in a considerable number of districts little use has
been made by the Local Authorities of their important powers under the
Home Work Provisions." . . . . "Outworkers form the weakest section
of the labouring class, and the class in respect of which the State, from
the nature of the circumstances, is least able by its officers to control the
conditions of work."
"If these conditions are to be effectively controlled, the Local
Authorities, to whom Parliament has entrusted the duty of supervising
them, must make a full use of their powers. The Secretary of State may
remind the Council that in addition to the ordinary sanitary inspection
under the Public Health Act of outworkers' dwellings, which is even
more necessary in their case than in the case of ordinary dwellings, the
following special obligations are placed on the Council:—
"1. The lists of outworkers should be duly received from
employers and the necessary steps taken to enforce them in case of
default.