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OFFICES AND SHOPS
Registration and Inspection
Premises registered during the year under the Offices, Shops and Railway
Premises Act 1963 numbered 172, the total registrations at the end of the year
being 2,938 in which 26,867 persons are employed.
Surveil1ance of these premises is executed by a public health inspector and
a technical assistant, who made general inspections of 1,295 premises, and
carried out over 2,400 other visits; Statistics on page 113.
Offices Shops and Railway Premises
(Hoists and Lifts) Regulations, 1968
It was evident for some time after the commencement date of the Regulations
that many of the "competent persons" carrying out lift inspections were unaware
that requirements for construction and maintenance of lifts, which have been in
force for factories for some years, had been extended to offices and shops. In
some cases, reports examined at premises during the course of inspections revealed
that although lifts could not continue to be used with safety, no notification had
been made to this Department. On each occasion the attention of the Company
concerned was drawn to Regulation 6(3), and an explanation sought. However, now
that the Regulations have been in operation for a year and a half, reports are
received regularly, and no great difficulty is experienced in enforcement.
Some difficulty, however, is being met with regard to the alteration of hand
powered service lifts and platform beer crate hoists to meet the requirements of
the Regulations in public houses. Existing lifts fall short of the required
standard in almost every public house visited, and defects are referred to the
Brewers concerned. Brewers' architects have replied claiming an almost accident
free record over a period of 50 years, and have pointed out their difficulties in
making these alterations. They state that the disturbance to the kitchens brought
about by alteration of liftways will often involve a complete revision of lay-out
and, in the case of smaller kitchens be completely impracticable. They say that
where hand powered service 1ifts are situated immediately adjacent to a bar, ropes
outside liftways would be subject to interference by customers standing close by,
with the possible chance of an accident to an employee with his or her head within
the liftway at another level. They also say that the layout of many cellars is
such as to make the enclosure of the liftway and the provision of a door
impracticab1e.
These and other objections, it is understood, are being discussed by the
London Brewers' Council with the Engineering Division of H. M . Factory Inspectorate
The Department of Employment have been asked that, if it should be established
as a result of these discussions that difficulties involved in the alteration
of lifts in public houses will be such that a standard short of that
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