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68
HOME OFFICE. B.
FACTORY AND WORKSHOP ACT, 1901.
DUTIES OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES.
ENGLAND AND WALES.
The Factory and Workshop Act, 1901, which consolidates with amendments all
previous Acts relating to factories and workshops, makes considerable alterations in and
additions to the duties of District Councils in regard to factories, workshops and workplaces.
The present memorandum describes the duties of District Councils as now
extended by that Act.
" District Council" includes for the purposes of the Act:—
(i.) Councils of municipal boroughs, including county boroughs.
(ii.) Councils of urban districts.
(iii.) Councils of rural districts.
In London, subject to certain exceptions,† " District Council" means the Court of
Common Council and the Councils of the Metropolitan Boroughs.
District Councils have duties in regard to each class of places named above, factories,
workshops and workplaces. It will be useful therefore at the outset to state briefly what
is included in these terms by the Act.
Definitions.
Factories include (1) all places in which mechanical power is used in aid of the manufacturing
processes; and (2) all places, whether mechanical power is used or not, in
which the industries specified in Part I. of Schedule VI. to the Act are carried on (that
is, print works, bleaching and dying works, earthenware works, lucifer match works,
percussion cap works, cartridge works, paper staining works, fustian cutting works, blast
furnaces, copper mills, iron mills, foundries, metal and india rubber works, paper mills,
glass works, tobacco factories, letterpress printing works, bookbinding works, flax scutch
mills, electrical stations).*
Workshops include:—
(1) The places specified in Part II. of Schedule VI. (that is, hat works, ropeworks,
bakehouses, lace warehouses, ship-building yards, quarries, pit banks of metalliferous
mines, dry cleaning works, carpet beating works, and bottle washing works),* unless
mechanical power is used and they are in consequence factories within the meaning of
the Act.
(2) Any other premises (not being factories in which manual labour is exercised by
way of trade or for purposes of gain in or incidental to the making, altering, repairing,
ornamenting, finishing or adapting for sale of any article and to or over which the
employer of the persons working there has the right of access or control.
* The definitions of these places in the schedule should be consulted.
† See page 76.