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Information was supplied to the Board of Trade respecting outworkers
notified through the City, for the purposes of their enquiries into the condition
of the sweated industries, as well as to other Local Authorities for public
purposes.
There were no cases of infectious disease at homeworkers' premises in the
City. In 12 cases enquiries Avere made where workers or outworkers had
been in contact with infectious disease, and all necessary precautions taken.
As indicating the importance of the "outworker"question, a letter
recently received from the Home Office is here reproduced :—
"Home Office,
"whitehall,
"4th October, 1906.
"HOMEWORK PROVISIONS OF THE FACTORY ACT.
"Sir,—I am directed by the Secretary of State to say, for the information of the
"Council, that he desires to bring specially before them the question of the
"enforcement by the Council and their officers of the provisions in the Factory Act
"which deal with the subject of homework, that is, work in the manufacture,
"repair, &c., of articles by the worker in his or her own house. Those provisions
"which are contained in sections 107 to 111 of the Act will be found summarized
"in the memorandum on the duties of local authorities under the Factory Act
"which was issued to the Council in December, 1904, and of which further copies
"can be obtained from Messrs. Wyman and Sons, Fetter Lane, E.C., either directly
"or through any bookseller.
"As the Council are aware, section 132 of the Act requires the Medical Officer
"of Health to send to the Secretary of State a copy of his annual report to the
"Council on the administration of the Factory Act in workshops and workplaces.
"The information with regard to homework contained in the Tables for 1904,
"supplied by the Home Office for the use of the Medical Officer of Health, has
"been tabulated, and presented to Parliament as a Return during the present
"session. A copy of the Return is enclosed for the information of the Council, and
"the Secretary of State would direct their special attention to the remarks in the
"introduction to the Return. Not only were the tables often omitted or very
"imperfectly filled up, but the inference cannot be avoided that in a considerable
"number of districts little use has been made by the local authorities of their
"important powers under the Homework provisions.
"The Secretary of State would most earnestly press upon the Council the impor"tance,
in the interests of the large class of workers engaged in homework, of a
thorough administration of those provisions. Outworkers form the weakest
"section of the labouring class, and the class in respect of which the State from
"the nature of the circumstances is least able by its Officers to control the conditions
"of work. If these conditions are to be effectively controlled, the local authorities,
"to whom Parliament has entrusted the duty of supervising them, must make a full
"use of their powers. The Secretary of State may remind the Council that in