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83
the number of cubic feet of space in any room bears to the number of
persons employed at one time in the room a proportion less than four
hundred cubic feet to each person."
Sanitary Authorities are required to keep a register of all workshops
situate within their district.
A summary of the requirements of the Factory and Workshop Act
and the Public Health Act was submitted to the Council, and reference
to the steps taken in anticipation of the coming in force of the Act
will be found in my Annual Report for 1901.
I suggested then that, from the large number of workshops employing
women in the City, it was desirable that women should be employed to
inspect them, as from the reports of H.M. Factory Inspectors, constant
supervision seems to be required. I also pointed out that the clerical
staff at my disposal was insufficient, and the Council appointed a boy
clerk and a messenger, besides re-arranging the clerical staff generally,
whereby committee work and the preparation of minutes, &c., was
carried out by clerks in the Town Clerk.s department.
The Home Office Inspectors sent to the City Council, during 1902,
160 complaints relating to 188 matters. The natures of the complaints
were:—
Repairs or cleansing required 98
Insufficient, insanitary, or unsuitable accommodation 28
Overcrowding 25
Defective ventilation of workroom 19
Gas iron heaters without flue 16
Absence of card in workroom 2
Eighty-nine of the complaints related to men.s workshops, 71 to
women.s.
During the year, 692 workshops have been inspected and 1,091 have
been visited; 86 new workshops have been added to the register, which
now contains 2,037 entries.
Inclusive of the complaints received from the Home Office, 233
workshops were cleansed, light and ventilation improved in 98 cases, 66
gas stoves ventilated, and overcrowding was abated in fifty instances.
298 workshops were measured up, and the particulars entered on the
" Abstract," which is required to be posted in each workplace. In many
cases parts of the houses are used as workshops, and therefore it is
impossible to separate out other sanitary defects which may have been
remedied (see pp. 70-71).
Sanitary Accommodation.—In dealing with the provision of sanitary
accommodation, we have been guided by the Order of the Home Office,
August, 1902. It does not apply to London, but it sets up a convenient
standard. The Order is:—