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62
Since the beginning of the year the whole work has been reorganised as a
distinct Department, this being necessary to prevent overlapping and confusion.
This Department now consists of three Inspectors and a Woman Sanitary
Inspector, and Inspector W. H. J. Gathercole is responsible to your Medical
Officer for its control. I propose shortly bringing up a scheme showing the
details of the work and duties of these officers.
The Sanitary Committee instructed me to report generally on the Factory
and Workshop Act, 1901, which I did as follows:—
"This new Act, which came into force on the 1st January, 1902, which
"transfers all the powers and obligations of His Majesty's Factory Department,
"so far as workshops and workplaces are concerned, to the Corporation as the
"Sanitary Authority for the City, will add very largely to the duties and
"responsibilities of your Medical Officer of Health and your Sanitary
"Inspectors. I should point out that ' workplace ' has a most extended
"meaning for the purposes of this Act. It is not defined in the Act, but in
"a case under Section 38 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, where
"the same phrase as in this Act occurs, viz., ' factory, workshop, and
"workplace,' it was held that the word is not to be limited to places where
"something is being manufactured or made, but includes ' any place where
"'work is done permanently, and where people assemble together to do work
"'permanently of some kind or other.' It is therefore a word of wider
"signification than the word ' workshop.' In the case in question a stable
"and stable yard where men were employed as cab cleaners and horsekeepers
"was held to be a workplace. Similarly the Secretary of State has been
"advised that the kitchens of restaurants, &c., though they are not work"shops,
come within the meaning of the term workplace.
" In view of the importance of these great changes, I append hereto
copies of—
" (i.) Letter of Home Secretary. (A, page 67.)
" (ii.) Memorandum issued by Home Office : ' Duties of Local Authorities'
" (so far as it relates to the City). (B, page 68.)
" (iii.) Home Work Order, dated 11th December, 1901. (C, page 77.)
" The duties of the Corporation under the Act are :—
"Workshops and Workplaces.
1. To see that every workshop and workplace is kept in a cleanly state
" and free from nuisance.
"2. That it is ventilated in such a manner as to render harmless as far as
"practicable from gases, vapours, dust, or other impurities generated
"in the course of the work that are a nuisance or injurious to
"health.