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"addition to the ordinary sanitary inspection under the Public Health Act of out"workers'
dwellings, which is even more necessary in their case than in the case of
"ordinary dwellings, the following special obligations are placed on the Council:—
"(1) The lists of outworkers should be duly received from employers and the
"necessary steps taken to enforce them in case of default.
"(2) Addresses of any outworkers in the lists who reside in other districts
"should be communicated to the Councils of those districts.
"(3) Where insanitary conditions or dangerous infectious diseases are found
"on outworkers' premises, action should be taken if necessary under sections
"108, 109 and 110 of the Factory Act which give power to the Council to
"prohibit outwork in such premises. For this purpose outworkers' premises
"should be systematically visited.
"(4) The annual report of the Medical Officer should be sent to the Home
"Office.
"The Secretary of State trusts that if in the past any of these duties have been
"imperfectly fulfilled in the Council's area, steps will be taken to remedy the
"omission in future.
"First, as regards the list of outworkers, the Secretary of State would urge the
"Council to take every possible step by inspection and otherwise to see that the lists
"of outworkers are duly kept by employers and copies sent to the Council twice a
"year as required by the Act. The second list for the current year was due to be
"sent to the Council on the 1st August. In this connection, he would remind the
"Council that the requirement in the Act applies not only to occupiers of factories
"and workshops but to any person, e.g., contractor, shop-keeper or the like, who
"gives out work to be done. It follows that if in any case the employer's list shows
"that work has been given out to a contractor (the prescribed form of list requires
"the employer to state whether the person to whom work is given out is a workman
"or contractor) the Council should see that the Contractor also furnishes lists of the
"persons to whom he passes on the work. Further, the attention of the Secretary
"of State has been called to the fact that in many cases the employers' lists include
"names and addresses of workers who have long since ceased to be employed. He
"may point out that the obligation on the employer is to keep lists of the persons
"in fact employed by him, and the list should not include any names of persons who
"have not been employed, say, during the 6 months previous, i.e., since the last list
"was due to be sent in. Every possible step should be taken to see that these lists
"are properly kept by the employers, and in case of default it is always open to the
"Council to enforce the obligation by legal proceedings.
"The information which these lists convey as to the names of the outworkers, the
"places where they live and work, the character of their employment, and the
"persons by whom the work is given out to them, is of the greatest importance not
"only to the local authority in supervising the sanitary conditions under which the
"work is done, but also to the Factory Inspectors in enforcing (a) the provisions of
"the Truck Acts (especially those which relate to deductions from the wages of the
"outworkers for bad work or for materials supplied by their employer) and also
"(b) those provisions of the Factory Act which (in respect of certain branches of
"industry) require particulars of the work and wages to be given to the outworkers
"to enable them to know what sum they will be entitled to receive on taking the