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Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwark.
executed. Adequate penalties are provided against the employment of persons in
work injurious to health, or for allowing wearing apparel to be made up, cleaned, or
repaired in places where there is scarlet fever or small-pox. It also directs that a full
notification and register of deaths from accident be kept by owners or occupiers, and
that the Factory Inspector attend the subsequent inquest, while the Homo Secretary
is furnished with powers for additional investigation if he deem fit.
A number of fresh regulations have been passed with regard to laundries, which
are now, for the first time, brought under the control of the Inspectors.
Numerous provisions have been made with a view to enforcing the duties of
employers in the observance of sanitation, of the fencing of machines, of the affixing
of notices, and of the general carrying out of their responsibilities under the Act. It
is worthy of special note, that in the case of tenement factories the owner is made
responsible in place of the occupier.
Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890.
Summary of Representations, under Part II., made by the Medical Officer of
Health during the year 1896.

Summary.
Houses and tenements, respecting which representations were made to the Vestry
that they were in a state so dangerous or injurious to health as to be unfit for human
habitation.
Houses and Tenements 2
Inhabitants 9
During the years 1892, 1893, 1894, 1895, and 1896, applications have been made
for Closing Orders in the case of 261 houses and tenements unfit for human habitation.
These dwellings have sheltered upwards of 1,500 persons, and I think some steps
should be taken to re-house those whose occupations necessitate their living in or near
the district. To effect this object, the necessary powers are given the Vestry under
part III. of the Act.
I would again respectfully commend the serious attention of your Sanitary
Authority toward the equitable solution of this pressing problem.
Section 30 of the Act states that "It shall be the duty of the Medical Officer of
Health of every district to represent to the Local Authority of that district any
dwelling-house which appears to him to be in a state so dangerous or injurious to
health as to be unfit for human habitation." In compliance with this direction I have
from time to time advised your Vestry (the Authority under the Act) to apply for
Closing Orders with respect to some of the worst class of slum-property in Southwark.
Moreover, after closure for a term of certain of these houses, your Vestry have made
and carried into effect orders for demolition.