View report page

86
Workshops and Work-places.
The powers of sanitary authorities are not only extended by the Factory and Workshop
Act, 1901, but certain duties necessary for efficient administration are imposed upon local
authorities. Thus each local authority is now required to keep a register of workshops, and to
distribute to other local authorities the addresses of out-workers whose home work is carried on in
the districts of these other authorities. Medical officers of health, moreover, are required to report
specifically in their annual report on the administration of the Factory and Workshop Acts in
their districts. The reports of London medical officers of health for the year 1902 show that much
work under the Act was done in London during that year, but the period which had elapsed since
the passing of the Act of 1901 has been too short for a definite statement to be made as to the
extent to which the provisions of the Acts have been administered in London as a whole. In the
compilation of the register in the various sanitary districts, the information afforded by the lists
of H.M. inspectors of factories has been available, and inquiry has been generally made for other
premises than those already on these lists. It has been necessary for the rooms in workshops
to be measured and their cubic contents calculated in order to enable a card to be
exhibited specifying the number of workpeople who may be employed in each room. A large
amount of work is involved in this initial proceeding, but when once it has been accomplished
the duty of periodically inspecting workshops will be much simplified. It will be seen by
reference to what follows that in many districts considerable progress is being made in this
matter. Endeavour has been made in abstracting the reports of medical officers of health for the
purposes of this report to state succinctly what has been done in each district. Owing, however, to
want of uniformity in the method of statement as to the work done in each district under these
Acts, it is not possible to make accurate comparison between the several districts in this respect,
nor can opinion be formed in many cases of the efficiency of the administration, and the need for
adoption of some uniform system of statement is obvious. As stated, however, in previous reports
to the County Council, the efficiency and completeness of the administration undoubtedly depends
largely upon the employment of special inspectors on this work, and certainly the employment of
female inspectors—a practice now adopted in more than half of the London districts—has been
productive of good results.
In view of the approach of the time when underground bakehouses will be permitted only
after certification as to their fitness by the sanitary authority much attention has been given in
the several districts to these premises. In many districts the sanitary authorities have adopted
"minimum requirements," with which underground bakehouses will have to comply before they
will be regarded as fit for certification. In other districts a uniform standard has not been adopted,
the fitness of each bakehouse being considered "on its merits." Some of the reports of medical
officers of health show that structural alterations would have to be made in many underground
bakehouses before they could comply with the requirements of the sanitary authority.
A legal decision in 1901 was followed by a statement in the official memorandum of the
20th December, explaining the duties of local authorities under the Act, that the Secretary of
State has been advised that the kitchens of restaurants, etc., though they are not workshops, come
within the meaning of the term "workplaces." In January, the County Council resolved "That
considering the thousands of persons in London whose business compels them to have the greater
part of their food in public restaurants and eating-houses, and in view of the great importance to
the public health that such food should be prepared in wholesome and sanitary surroundings, it
be referred to the Public Health Committee to consider and report as to the best means to
exercise periodical inspections of the kitchens of restaurants and eating-houses on similar lines
as bakehouses and factories are inspected/' The Public Health Committee thereupon reported
as follows—
We may remind the Council that in 1898 an inquiry was made by Dr. Hamer as to the circumstances
under which certain articles of food are prepared for sale in London. Tn his report, which was
published in 1899, Dr. Hamer expressed the opinion that much larger use could be made by sanitary
authorities of existing powers than was then the practice, but that it was desirable that they should
have an additional power to require the removal of conditions exposing food to risk of contamination.
We are considering the question of the legislation which is needed for this purpose in connection with
proposed amendments of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891.
The following are the paragraphs in Dr. Hamer's report which referred particularly to restaurants—
"Restaurants, eating-houses, dining-rooms—I visited a number of these places in different parts
"of London. Apart from defects which can be remedied under the Public Health Act, and which
"are more or less frequently met with in different districts in accordance with the less or greater
"efficiency of the supervision exercised by the sanitary authority, there are three or four points
"to which consideration requires to be given. In the first place the situation of the water-closet
"is in a large number of instances open to objection. It sometimes opens directly out of the dining"room
or kitchen, and may have no means of ventilation other than through one of these rooms.
"In the central parts of London, where space is very limited, there is a tendency for both closet
"and kitchen to be relegated to the basement; one or both of them under these conditions may
"be badly lighted and ventilated, and they not infrequently communicate directly with one
"another.
"The by-laws under Sec. 39 (i.) of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, made by the Council,
"provide that every person who shall hereafter construct a water-closet in connection with a build"ing
shall not construct such water-closet ' so that it is approached directly from any room used
"for the manufacture, preparation or storage of food for man.' The by-law is unfortunately
not retrospective. There are special provisions, it may be noted, dealing with this
"question as regards bakehouses and milkstores and milkshops. The proximity of the water-closet
"to the kitchen leads in some cases to articles intended for food being exposed to risk of contami"nation,
as for example, to quote instances observed in the course of recent inspection, when a
"basket of radishes is placed on the water-closet floor or when milk churns stand close to the
"water-closet.
"A second consideration has relation to sleeping rooms. These are occasionally found com"municating
with, or, as in a case T have noted, actually forming a portion of a kitchen. Here
"again special provisions exist as regards bakehouses and milkshops, and the by-law quoted above
"provides that no water-closet hereafter constructed shall communicate with 'a room used for the
"'purpose of human habitation,' but as already stated the by-law is not retrospective.